well known russian antifascist shot dead

[Sasha]

Iwan Chutorskoi murdered

http://media.de.indymedia.org/images/2009/11/266101.jpg

Last night, on 16 November 2009 in Moscow the 26-yearold anti-fascist Iwan Chutorskoi was cowardly shot dead in his house entrance. Iwan organized security for anti-fascist concerts, and gave martial-arts training to comrades. The right-wing extremists where well aware of him, his name emerged beside those from Stanislaw Markelow and Nikolai Girenko steadily on the Nazis death lists. Before the murder of yesterday already three attempted murders at Iwan had been committed. 2005 he was attacked by Nazis, who stabt him in his head. he survived a further attack only by a miracle, when Nazis lay in wait in his house entrance and stabt him with a screwdriver numerous heavy wounds in the neck. In January of this year he survived again only scarcely a stab into the belly, which he received during a street fight with Nazis.
In Moscow this is already the sixth murder of anti-fascists by militant right-wing extremists. In April 2006 the 19-jear old Alexandr Rjuchin died at after being stabt, in March 2008 in a knive attack Alexej Krylow was killed, in October 2008 Fedor Filatow, a leader of anti-fascist skinheads, next to his house entrance was murdered and on 28 June 2009 the anti-fascist Ilja Dshaparidse was murdered in an assault by the right-wing extremists.

more info:
http://www.rkas.org.ua/forum/viewtopic.php?f=12&t=862&view=unread#unread
http://www.ikd.ru/node/11658
http://www.rabkor.ru/news/4257.html

-----

Iwan Chutorskoi ermordet

Gestern Abend, am 16. November 2009 wurde in Moskau der 26-jährige Antifaschist Iwan Chutorskoi in seinem Hauseingang hinterhältig erschossen. Iwan organisierte in letzter Zeit den Saalschutz bei antifaschistischen Konzerten, und führte Kampfsporttraining für Genossen durch. Den Rechtsextremen war er wohlbekannt, sein Name tauchte neben denen von Stanislaw Markelow und Nikolai Girenko beständig in den Todeslisten der Nazis auf.
Vor dem gestrigen Mord waren bereits drei Mordversuche an Iwan verübt worden. 2005 wurde Iwan von Nazis überfallen, die ihm seinen Kopf zerschnitten. Ein weiteres Mal überlebte er nur durch ein Wunder, als ihm Nazis im Hauseingang auflauerten und mit einem Schraubenzieher zahlreiche schwere Verwundungen im Halsbereich zufügten. Im Januar dieses Jahres überlebte er wiederum nur knapp einen Messerstich in den Bauch, den er bei einem Straßenkampf mit Nazis erhielt.

In Moskau ist dies bereits der sechste Mord an Antifaschisten durch militante Rechtsextreme. Im April 2006 starb der 19-jährige Alexandr Rjuchin an Messerstichen, im März 2008 wurde bei einem Messerangriff Alexej Krylow getötet, im Oktober 2008 wurde Fedor Filatow, ein Anführer antifaschistischer Skinheads, neben seinem Hauseingang ermordet und am 28. Juni 2009 starb der Antifaschist Ilja Dshaparidse bei einem Überfall der Rechtsextremisten.

Zusammengestellt nach:
http://www.rkas.org.ua/forum/viewtopic.php?f=12&t=862&view=unread#unread
http://www.ikd.ru/node/11658
http://www.rabkor.ru/news/4257.html

[Pogue]

This is tragic news. A brilliant comrade who no doubt will be greatly missed. This shows the cowardice of the Nazis and the lengths the scum will go to. We shouldn't forget the efforts of our comrade, a hero of anti-fascism like so many before.

The best tribute is to keep up the fight - no pasaran!

[Dr Mindbender]

RIP :crying:

[F9]

RIP
As Poque said, the best tribute to him, is to continue the fight!

[1968]

Tragic news.

NEVER FORGIVE. NEVER AGAIN. RIP. 161.

[ls]

RIP. All glory to Antifa Russia.

[palotin]

Rip

[Psych0]

Yesterday evening Monday 16th, 26 years old Ivan Khutorskoy aka Vanya-kostolom was shot dead at the entrance of his house. This name is not well-known among general public, but he was a colossal figure among Russian antifascists and left activists. First of all he is known as one of informal leaders of youth antifascist movement, and one of founders of R.A.S.H. (Red and Anarchist skinheads) – community of skinheads-antifascists adhering to the left political views. It’s obvious for the most of his friends that the murder has been committed by Russian neo-nazi.

Ivan’t initials, photos and home address, as well as ones of many other antifascists like Fedor Filatov and Timour Dzhaparidze were repeatedly published on nazi-websites in order to call nazi-bastards for his destruction. It was the 4th attempt on Ivan’s life. First he was assaulted by nazi in 2005. This incident was fixed by a camera and was shown in a documental program “Ordinary antifascism”. Then attackers waited for Ivan in the entrance of his house, stubbed him in the neck with a screwdriver, and inflicted several blows by a baseball bat — he miraculously survived. The third attack was carried out on January, 2009 – Ivan was stubbed in the stomach during a street fight, this wound was also almost lethal but he survived again. And now, when everything else had failed, Nazis decided to try guns.

It was a kind-hearted and responsive man, he was always ready to help his friends in any situation. Ivan was an example of indomitable will and courage for all of us. He remained faithful to his convictions till the end. With Ivan, any such claims post-mortem would be a misrepresentation any way around, as every clique and crew in the scene considered him as one of them, and he was respected and loved by absolutely everyone. Ivan considered himself a RASH skinhead, which did not bothered apolitical and patriotic Moscow Troyan Skinheads to consider him as one of them. And anarchists of course considered Ivan one of the anarchists, and it is true that Ivan had anti-authoritarian and social positions and was always ready to provide security for anarchists events. But he did not lived for activism – he lived for the streets and for the punk rock.

Perpetrators will be prosecuted – we will do all our best for it. Our duty is to continue activities started by him.
antifa.ru/3444.html
those nazi-bastards will pay for all...

[redSHARP]

a great comrade to RASH has perished, RIP. Solidarity from RASH USA!!!

[Stand Your Ground]

R.I.P.

Never forgive...never forget...

[Mälli]

I just read about this today morning. :( Solidarity from Finland. No pasaran!

[1968]

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/18/world/europe/18moscow.html

http://news.sky.com/skynews/Home/World-News/Anti-Fascist-Youth-Group-Member-Shot-By-Ultra-Nationalists-In-Moscow/Article/200911315455888

[Bandito]

I got so pissed off when I read the news this morning.
Russia strikes again.
They really need sorting out.

[Rjevan]

Fuck, what sad and bitter news... R.I.P. comrade Iwan Chutorskoi.
Those nazi scum must pay, never forget, never forgive!

[Montag451]

I have a question. As far as i can remember there has been about 10-20 murders of militant antifascists in Europe in the last few years.

Have militant antifascists ever murdered a neo-nazi? I never heard of such a thing!
(just so it doesnt sound wrong,i am strongly against any kind of murder)

[Sasha]

extra info from A-Info's
avtonom - 18.11.2009 16:15

The following text appeared yesterday. According to several folks on our platform, it is the most thoughtful response to the murder in Moscow of Ivan Khutorskoi, an antifa activist. As such, it is less about that horrible event than about the growth of the neo-Nazi movement and the Kremlin’s attempts to control and manipulate elements of that movement for its own ends.

---- Copylefter: "They Killed Vanya" ----

They killed Vanya.

Now the Nazis don’t jump random punk-rock concert-goers — now they operate like professionals. And indeed, why else would they have trained so much at “patriot” camps and abandoned building sites if only to operate like a mob of disguised football hooligans who attack their victims with knives? If it goes on this way, then the right-wingers will simply gun down all the important actors in the antifascist network. Then they’ll finish off the “importunate” liberals like the folks at SOVA. Then probably they’ll go after artists: after all, they’re too visible, and besides, they already have practical experience with organizing pogroms at art exhibitions. And after that the selection of books at Falanster will arouse their displeasure... And so, without taking power directly, the fascists will quite palpably begin limiting the freedom of people who aren’t involved in political life. Meanwhile, the Kremlin will with one hand catch some “right-wing terrorist” or other, reporting to the west about the success of its operation, while with the other it will shake the hands of his comrades-in-arms, make them aides to Duma deputies, and shell out dough to organize right-wing resources — all exclusively within the conceptual framework of controlling the nationalists. What kind of fucking controllable Nazis are we talking about? How can you use training camps to “castrate” Nazis?

RNE (Russian National Unity), a 1000% police-controlled organization,
was able to use the financing and resources of pro-Kremlin structures to
recruit a staggering number of people to the right-wing movement:
newspapers that were distributed amongst cops and the military, training
camps… The story of the NSO (National-Socialist Society) and [Dmitry]
Rumiantsev is also widely known, but who cares? Now there are new Nazis
at the feeding trough — Russian Image (Russkiy Obraz). It’s total
fucking nonsense: the guy under whose name [the organization’s]
eponymous journal is registered is being prosecuted for a political
murder to the accompaniment of the state-controlled media, while his
comrades-in-arms write daring texts about “killer journalists,” and the
Kremlin gives them permission to hold concerts by Kolovrat [a Russian
Nazi skinhead band whose name is taken from the Slavic version of the
swastika] in the middle of Moscow.

I will say it one more time: what kind of fucking controllable
nationalists are we talking about? What, if you create a legal political
buffer for them and feed them, they won’t kill people? Fuck that.
Vanya’s murder is merely the latest tragic example of the idiocy of this
idea. It’s clearly revenge for [the arrests] of [Nikita] Tikhonov and
[Evgenia] Khasis, and the legality of the Russian Marches couldn’t stop
it in any way.

Meanwhile, posts and comments have already appeared in LiveJournal in
which people who “do not approve” of fascists talk about how the antifa
are the same kind of shaven-headed extremists —just look at what a big
guy [Ivan Khutorskoi] was, and he’s wearing a Lonsdale shirt. This is
such a convenient way to distance yourself from the problem. It’s in the
style of the late nineties: all politics is sansara, and the best way to
deal with it is to consciously keep aloof. But keeping aloof is possible
only if and when all participants in an event are equally losers. If you
recognize that at least one of them has truth and honesty on his side,
then keeping aloof is tantamount to treachery. And that is why the
flywheel of collective therapy — “they’re just like the Nazis, they’re
just like the Nazis…” — will start spinning again.

It is time to put a stop to it. What is happening has long ago stopped
corresponding to the favorite theory of office clerks made wise by their
benefits packages (about turf battles between neighborhood teenage
gangs) — this is genuine political terrorism. And the policy of the
authorities vis-a`-vis the right-wingers — this de-marginalization of
Nazis in the teeth of a constant stream of murders — unties the hands of
the “Aryan warriors” and enables them to recruit 100 people for every
one that gets sent to prison.

Moreover, there is no need at all for any kind of “centers for extremism
prevention” or passing harsher laws. As it is, they already forbid
practically everything you can think of, but for some reason the Nazis
aren’t becoming fewer. We need a decisive mobilization on the part of
all people who don’t fancy ending up to their ears in fascist shit,
despite the fact that we’re unaccustomed to traditional political actions.

We need to put an end to very possibility that the authorities could
support the right-wingers. For the sake of this goal we can even forget
about political differences, about our traditional fussiness and the
fear of being deceived by “politicos.” Otherwise we’ll soon find
ourselves in a country where the Nazis have grown so strong and made
themselves so at home that it won’t even be possible to think about
autonomy and personal freedom.

-----------------------------------------------

The life and death of Ivan Khutorskoy

Yesterday evening, Monday the 16th of November, 26 year old anti-fascist
Ivan “Vanya Kostolom” Khutorskoy was shot to death at the entrance to
his home at Khabarovsk street in the east side of Moscow; according to
some information with two shots to his head.

Vanya was a great figure in the Russian anti-fascist movement, and I am
sure many people will write down their memories of him in thedays,
months and years to come. But as of today most of his friends are too
angry and too shocked, at the loss of this friend and comrade.

My first memories of Vanya are from around 2004, I was running anarchist
distro at a concert in R-Club. By that time I wasn't going to gigs too
often, so most of the faces were unknown to me. It was before the period
when after the murder of Sasha Ryukhin when Moscow hardcore went
completely underground. Thus the concert was openly announced, and you
could not be sure who was around. So I was a bit wary of the skinhead
crowd, especially this one big guy. But there was no reason to worry,
Vanya being there was actually the best guarantee that any trouble would
be handled.

I do not know where Vanya got his nickname “Kostolom”, “Bonecrusher”.
Maybe it was some kind of joke, as it is hard to imagine a more friendly
and humorous guy than Vanya.

Last time I saw Vanya was at the “No surrender” mixed martial arts
tournament, organised on the 10th of October this year in Moscow. The
tournament was organised in memory of another murdered anti-fascist,
Fyodor Filatov. Vanya was the referee, as seen in the photo above. Vanya
was well-trained in Sambo, a martial arts developed in Soviet Union
which is still popular in the region. He he had some success in
tournaments and he achieved the degree of Candidate for Master of Sports
of Russia. He also competed in arm-wrestling. This was one of the
reasons that made him especially feared and hated among Nazis, since
they attempt to picture their enemies as weak alcoholics and junkies.
Few Nazis could match up to Vanya in a fair fight, this is why they
attacked him with razorblades, screwdrivers and knives, and when even
that did not work out, with a gun.

Before that my last meeting with him was outside the Ska-P concert last
May. None of my friends had enough money to pay 30 euros for a concert
of Spanish ska-punkers, but we decided to give out free anti-fascist
papers outside. After all, on the concert poster the group was in
anti-fascist t-shirts – not a big thing in Spain, but something for
which a musician may have to pay with his life in Moscow. Thus handing
stuff outside was not any worse than leafletting random people at the
street. Vanya and a number of other people were asked to cover us.

The reaction of semi-yuppie clubbers and punks to our papers was mixed –
obviously many were there just to party. Then a phonecall – another
group of comrades was in a trouble few kilometers south, followed by a
larger mob of Nazis. Our cover had to move to clear things out. I had no
plans for a fight that evening, but I had little choice – having
distributed anti-fascist papers to hundreds of people, going wandering
around afterwards alone could easily end up with 5 inches of steel
between my ribs. So I had to stick with the crew.

We met with the other mob and regrouped. Vanya warned about not
attacking as soon as Nazis were in sight due to the fact that they
would figure out that they were outnumbered and just run away and never
get caught. But people could not hold themselves back. 100+ meters was
way too much distance to close the gap, Nazis ran to alleys and jumped
over some fences, no one was caught. I was in bad shape so I could not
run as fast as the rest, Vanya simply didn't run because he knew it was
pointless. So we were left behind the mob with some girls who avoided
being in the frontline, and together we took a look around if any Nazis
had hidden in an alley to our side.

Later that evening, another regroup – some asses kicked, some more
missed opportunities. But it would be pointless to tell all these
stories – while I was an unusual guest, for Vanya beating up Nazis was
as routine as waking up in the morning. To tell one of these stories
would be to tell nothing, as there are hundreds of them.

Vanya was a common face in the punk scene since the beginning of the
century. Anti-antifa websites have large galleries of him, the oldest
photos with a mohawk hairstyle. He was not in the first Moscow Antifa
generation which got together around spring of 2002, but when he joined
up in 2003-2004 he stayed for good.

Sometimes, after such tragedies, there is a kind of sad body-snatching
match going on where everyone wants to claim a dead hero – that was the
case for example with Stanislav Markelov, who, while still alive was a
prankster who told to anarchists that he was a social-democrat, and to
trotskists and stalinists that he was an anarchist, just to frustrate
everyone.

With Vanya, any such post-mortem claims would be a misrepresentation any
way you look at it, as every clique and crew in the scene considered him
one of their own, and he was respected and loved by absolutely everyone.
Vanya considered himself a RASH skinhead, which did not hold back the
apolitical and patriotic Moscow Trojan Skinheads from considering him as
one of them. Anarchists of course considered Vanya one of the
anarchists, and it is true that Vanya had an anti-authoritarian and
social position and was always ready to provide security for anarchists
events. But he did not live for activism – he lived for the streets and
for punk rock.

He was as sharp as a razorblade, and he finished his juridical studies
at the Russian State Social University with a “red diploma”, that is a
diploma “with excellence” given to students in the region of the former
Soviet Union who have almost exclusively the best possible grades. As
there are few people with juridical studies in the scene, I had some
hopes that Vanya would join the ranks of the activist lawyers when he
would retire from street fighting one day – even before he was murdered,
Stas Markelov was overwhelmed with legal cases from our movement and had
trouble in dealing with them alone. Vanya and Stas knew each other well,
and Vanya also provided security to some press-conferences held by Stas.
Most recently Vanya worked as a lawyer in “Deti ulitsy”-center
(“Children of the street”), which works with street children and other
children with difficulties.

Of course people now ask why he went to his flat that evening, although
his address was posted all around in the Nazi websites. Vanya often
stayed in other places. Maybe he had some important business with his
family, maybe he just spit in the face of death, having survived so many
attempts on is life.

Vanya was jumped the first time in 2005 and his head was cut with a
razorblade. This incident was recorded with a CCTV camera and used in a
TV documentary of NTV channel, which is available online here:
http://www.indymedia.nl/images/extlink.gif http://rutube.ru/tracks/663741.html?v=242f56ae5e0dca6e5c9d77cc8558fb5d .
Next time, in the autumn of the same year, they attempted kill him – his
neck was punctured 6 times with a sharpened screwdriver, which is a
popular weapon among Russian Nazis as it punctures deeper than a knife.
Any of these strikes could have been lethal, but miraculously none of
them hit arteries and he survived. This incident was also recorded to a
CCTV camera, but cops had little interest in investigating and they
didn't even check the recording! It took more than half a year for
Vanya to fully recover from this attack.

In January of this year, Vanya was stabbed in his stomach during a
street fight, this wound was almost lethal as well but he survived. And
now, when everything else failed, Nazis decided to use guns – they
finally succeeded. .

S2W

Vanya's father died a few years ago, he is by his mother and his
sister. Donations to support friends and family with funeral costs are
welcome, you may use Yandex-money account 41001411894609, or in case you
do not know what that is, you may donate through ABC-Moscow:
http://www.indymedia.nl/images/extlink.gif http://www.avtonom.org/donate. But in this case write to ABC-Moscow
about your plans (abc-msk AT riseup DOT net, and also indicate in
transfer that it is “for Kostolom friends and family”.

Source: http://www.indymedia.nl/images/extlink.gif http://avtonom.org/index.php?nid=2857

-------------------------------------------------------------------

Attack against office of "Young Russia" in Moscow

In evening of 17th of November, friends of Ivan Khutorskoy, anarchists
and anti-fascists gathered at metro station "Tsvetnoy Boulevard" to
gather financial support to family of Ivan. At least 400 people gathered
there.

Soon a bus with OMON riot police and people from "Center of
Counteraction Against Extremism" CPE came to disperse crowd, which was
gathering peacefully and had not intentions to demonstrate at the spot.

According to texts posted to some blogs, aroup of people moved to metro,
police tried to grab people but everyone was succesfully dearrested.

Later part of the people who gathered took metro to office of
pro-Kremlin youth organisation "Young Russia" (Rossiya Molodaya), which
is openly cooperating with organisation "Russkiy Obraz" (Russian Way),
linked to
suspected murderers of lawyer Stanislav Markelov and anarchist
journalist Anastasia Baburova. Office of "Young Russia" was attacked
with rocks, stones, flares and road signs. After attack, anti-fascists
escaped.

According to anonymous statement posted to some indymedia sites (for
example here: http://www.indymedia.nl/images/extlink.gif http://piter.indymedia.org/node/8659), "Young Russia" was
picked as a target due to its links to neonazis.

More on Young Russia Nazi connection:
http://www.indymedia.nl/images/extlink.gif http://chtodelat.wordpress.com/2009/11/18/copylefter-they-killed-vanya/
http://www.indymedia.nl/images/extlink.gif http://www.avtonom.org/index.php?nid=2853

More on Ivan Khutorskoy:
http://www.indymedia.nl/images/extlink.gif http://www.avtonom.org/index.php?nid=2857

In Russian: http://www.indymedia.nl/images/extlink.gif http://www.avtonom.org/index.php?nid=2856

Source: http://www.indymedia.nl/images/extlink.gif http://www.avtonom.org/index.php?nid=2859



http://www.indymedia.nl/images/link_small.gif Website: http://avtonom.org/index.php?nid=2857

[Bandito]

My friend met Vanya in Germany and said that he was really a sweet person.
Three shots in the back...
Cowardly bastards.

[RotStern]

Fucking nazi scum!
fuck them all, the bastards.
:cursing:

[Tyrlop]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ROUX0eHazQg
Let his memory be remembered forever. Now he is together with all the antifascist heroes like the famous hero Beimler.

[Montag451]

No,he's not. He's dead. His existance is terminated. That's the problem. Let's not delude ourselves with pathetic escapism.:(

I seriously hope things in Russia go for the better. It takes a brave man to be an antifascist there.

[aty]

Why have not Russian Antifa begun an armed campaign against the nazis? The nazis will kill many more of you if you dont fight back with the same level of violence as the nazis.

[RedStarOverChina]

Rip

[Montag451]

Why have not Russian Antifa begun an armed campaign against the nazis? The nazis will kill many more of you if you dont fight back with the same level of violence as the nazis.

Indeed one would think that even hardcore pacifists would start acting that way after all this.
But i dont think this is a matter of their willingness. I think it's a matter of nazis being protected by the government as they continously prove to be useful idiots to them.
In short, if a nazi kills an antifascist chances are little he is going to get caught prosecuted and sentanced. If it happens the other way around the state of legality suddenly comes into existance..

[Bitter Ashes]

Dont mourn. Organise!
- Joe Hill

[Sasha]

My assumption of guilt
@page { margin: 2cm } P { margin-bottom: 0.21cm } A:link { so-language: zxx }


http://www.avtonom.org/files/2853/tihonovbig.jpg





Russia is a promised land for conspiracy theories. When last week Nikita Tikhonov and Yevgeniya Khasis, Nazi activists suspected of having murdered leftist human rights lawyer Stanislav Markelov and journalist and anarchist activist Anastasia Baburova, were arrested and taken to court hearings to decide about detention measures, the rumor mill went grinding.




The number one spinners were anti-migration bloggers, very much concerned about the human rights of their Nazi comrades. Now they scream about a “New Guantanamo”, although I do not think they had anything against the previous one. Some of the real human rights activists swallowed the hook, but the fact is that hoods on the heads of the accused are in the common best interest both for themselves and the investigation – if their faces are broadcast all over the tv, witness testimonies become unreliable.




My own feeling however is that investigators have picked up the right people, although not necessarily all of them. And I believe, that Tikhonov was not merely the executor, but also the planner of the murder. What it comes down to is an unknown man who had been spotted by anti-fascists at a previous press-conference held by Stanislav Markelov, photographed and thrown out fromthe event by anti-fascists (his photos have been distributed via various anti-fascist and mainstream media, for example here (http://direct-line.org/2009/11/11/markelov/#more-302), (http://direct-line.org/2009/11/11/markelov/#more-302%29m) I believe that he was a scout involved in the plot, but after being revealed was replaced by Khasis.




Despite all its faults, the Russian judicial system is probably more capable of passing a verdict than I am – but I can argue why I feel this way.




A bullet in the head in the middle of the city is not a job for a fumbling teenager's first time in action. Andrei Fazilyev and Kirill Vahruchev, who half-accidentally clubbed anti-fascist Stas Korepanov to death in Izhevsk in March of 2007 got 13 year sentences – apparently they could not even afford proper lawyers. Another half-accidental killing, that of Ilya Borodaenko in the protest camp in Angarsk of Siberia in summer of 2007 could have had some influential sponsors, judging from the fact that the Nazi gang who did the job had been previously detained the same night and then released. However cannon fodder was not that important for the influential sponsors that they would care about the detention, during which young Nazis were tortured so cruelly that at least one of them attempted to commit suicide. Nikita Tikhonov however is not from this series – he made few mistakes, and his lawyer obviously knows his job. And such lawyers are not free in Russia. Everything Tikhonov has done and said after his detention, is a series of well-calculated moves to minimize his up-coming sentence.




Different from knives, stunt guns, telescope batons and pepper gas, which are sold on almost every street, it is not easy to obtain illegal firearms in Russia. Thus, whoever assumes all the risks assosciated to purchasing illegal guns, is obviously representative of a class which does whatever it takes in order not to get its clothes and hands dirty when working – that is, the intellectual class.




Tikhonov, if anyone, is a Nazi intellectual. This is clear to anyone, who has ever opened up a copy of the “Russkiy Obraz”, a magazine which Tikhonov set up about a decade ago with his friend Ilya Goryachev, with whom he studied history in the most prestigious history faculty of Russia – that of Moscow State University. You will not find conpsiracy theories about the elders of Zion or Freemasons, Nazi BDSM uniform fetishism or other usual Nazi features in “Russkiy Obraz.” The Russian word “obraz” has many meanings - “Obraz Zhizn” means “Way of life”, but depending on the context “obraz” may mean appearance, image, conception, outline, character, type, mode, way or icon. As for the roots, first of all Obraz is the name of one organisation of Serbian nationalists. The ideological foundation of the original project was in solidarity with Serbian nationalism, which was a logical choice – it was the Balkan wars which proved that ethnic cleansings are still current in Europe today, and it was natural to propose the same for multinational Russia. Today the “Kosovo scenario” is the main scarecrow for all migration critics in Europe, in this sense Russkiy Obraz was even ahead of its time.




Goryachev and Tikhonov were maybe not the Benoit and Evola of Russia, but they managed to create a new, more credible project for the extreme right. The print run of “Russkiy Obraz” was not big, maybe 500 copies, but due to its intellectual level it had influence, and soon fans of the most important Russian White Power-band, Kolovrat (“Swastika”) also grouped around it.




As a curious historical detail, the leader of Kolovrat Denis Gerasimov played for a while in hardcore punk band “Skygrain”, which launched a total oppositional movement. Skygrain was not the first straightedge band of Russia, that was “Koleso Dharmy” founded 1993 in Volzhk, which nowadays is active in Tampere of Finland as “Wheel of Dharma (http://www.hevonkuusi.org/%7Epunch/)” . However, Skygrain was the first to play American-style hardcore with an anti-fascist message in Moscow, thus they started up anti-fascist subculture in Moscow (Nowadays the singer of Skygrain, Kiril“Student” is active in the group Argument 5.45 (http://www.myspace.com/ak545).




Gerasimov was drafted to the army. The story goes that he went to Chechnya, got his head smashed and returned a Nazi. Kolovrat was the headlining band in a concert organised by Goryachev in Bolotnaya square, just a few steps away from the Kremlin gates this past 4th of November. This was perhaps the first open, legal concert of the group in Russia for a decade, and a result of the careful tactics of Russkiy Obraz.




There is a continuous, fierce fight on hegemony going on in the Russian far-right, and right now Russkiy Obraz has the upper hand against many other groups. On the other hand, it does not attempt to maintain distance from Nazi-skinheads, unlike the “Movement Against Illegal Migration” DPNI which strives for a more moderate image. Russkiy Obraz has also managed to gain good contacts to many influential people, such as the deputy of ruling “United Russia”- party Maksim Mishchenko, a regular guest during “Russkiy Obraz”events. We will see, if Goryachev's hasty attempts to distance himself from hisold friend in public are enough to save status of Russkiy Obraz as the favourite Nazis of Kremlin.




According to Aleksander Potkin, former leader of DPNI, Tikhonov was working as a speechwriter (http://gazeta.ru/social/2009/11/05/3281078.shtml) for Duma chairman and leader of the “United Russia”party, Boris Gryzlov in 2001-2003, while he was serving as minister of internal affairs for the Russian federation. This was of course quickly denied by “United Russia”, which is hardly surprising as Gryzlov is probably the third most important politician in Russia, after Putin and Medvedev. In any case Tikhonov was a professional in political media, whose contacts and skills played an important role in transforming Russkiy Obraz from a minor samizdat mag to one of the leading brands of the Russian far-right.




But why is it that Tikhonov abandoned a promising career as a Nazi intellectual, and disappeared first into the underground and now to jail for what will most likely end up in a sentence of a few decades? In order to explain this, you have to rewind back more than three years, and go back to the 16th of April 2006. On that day, 9 days before his 20th birthday, anti-fascist Alexander Ryukhin was stabbed to death on his way to a hardcore-punk concert. Within afew months three teenage Nazis were arrested – one of them had used his personal electronic metro ticked in a metro station not far from the place of the murder. After few days of “workout”, they were ready to confess – however the murderer himself, “Alexander Parnov”, had already disappeared underground. For police, this would have been good enough – half-solved crimes look bad in the statistics-obsessed Russian system. But due to the efforts of Stanislav Markelov, police was forced to put out an arrest warrant on Tikhonov as well, who apparently was the main organiser of the action.

What exactly happened on that April day? Personally I doubt that Tikhonov planned a murder, I believe that Parinov acted without his permission. If you want to kill someone, it is not very clever to take three inexperienced teenagers along, who are likely to screw up in one way or another. On the other hand, before that day the atmosphere in the Moscow Nazi scene was that of all-mightiness – in the previous years, a small circle of people had murdered dozens of migrants, and in Tikhonov's and Parinov's circles it was completely common to murder with impunity. However, even if murder was planned, I am certain that Tikhonov was forced to go underground against his own plans, and not so much due to police efforts as to the efforts of Stanislav Markelov.




But as the clever guy that he is, Tikhonov quickly reorientated, and went on to collecting guns and whatever else wouldbe necessary for an underground cell. I believe, that Stanislav and Anastasia were not the first, nor the last persons he murdered during these 3 years – a good candidate for Tikhonov's work is for example the murder of Caucasian Rasip Halulov on the 3rd of September this year. He was on his way to court where he was accused of membership in a group which beat up and stabbed Nazi activists in the Moscow metro. Halulov's group was named “Black hawks” in the media, although apparently they never called themselves that.




According to this article (http://rusrep.ru/articles/2009/11/09/markelov/) Tikhonov was busted because amateurs, independently from government officials, had broken into the correspondence of Yevgeniya Khasis on Russian Facebook copy “Vkontakte (http://www.vkontakte.ru/)” . It was logical, that Tikhonov was caught due to someone else's mistake – he is probably too clever himself to screw up in that way. But this is the necessary flip-side of the underground way of life – as your contacts to the outer world are limitted, you have little choice in picking the people you work with. And it is hard to assassinate someone completely on your own, as an assassin should not reveal one's face, but for a scout it is almost impossible to hide without gaining undesired attention.




The Russian mainstream media has speculated a lot as to Yevgeniya's nationalitysince she has a Jewish surname. But this just shows the ignorance of journalists towards the Nazi movement, as the nationalities of Nazis should no longer be of surprise to anyone. Already mentioned murderers of Stanislav Korepanov had Tatar surnames. Maksim Martsinkevich, who ran the popular “Format 18” website where videos of cruel beatings of migrants were published, had Polish roots. Roman Ragimov, the Nazi who beat a Tadzhik man to death in Kirov in 2003 was Azerbaijani. The father of David Bashelutskov, who cruelly murdered Azerbaijani man in Volgograd and was arrested in the beginning of this year in Moscow for his membership in Nazi pagan group which planted bombs to a mosque, a McDonald's outlet and other places, was Armenian. Alexei Dzhavashishvili, recently arrested leader of the “White wolves” Nazi group, who is accused of 11 murders and one attempted murder, is Georgian. The most diligent Nazi serial killer in Russia thus far, Arthur Ryno who was recently sentenced for 20 murders and 12 attempted murders, had a Chukchi father. Yevgeniya is also not the first Jewish person in the ranks of underground Nazi groups – according to some sources Nazi sympathizer Alexander Koptsev, who wounded 9 persons with a knife in a Moscow synagogue, is Jewish. Rostislav Hoffman, suspected of being a member of the Borovikov Nazi gang from St. Peterburg which murdered at least six persons, is also Jewish. Hoffman himself, was apparently executed during an internal purge of the group. The multinationality of Nazi movement is not a merely Russian phenomenon – for example probably the most famous Swedish (former) Neo-Nazi Jackie Arklöv had a Liberian mother.




As to Yevgeniya, according to mainstream news, she was raised by an alcoholic single mother, so one can speculate about a failed relationship with the father – which is also the case with many more of the aforementioned people. But this would take us on a tangent, as Nazism is not a diagnosis – mentally ill persons do not murder in such a systematic and deliberate way, not for an idea. To claim that Nazis are mentally ill, would be an underestimation. And the term “Neo-Nazi” is a similar kind of underestimation – although present day Nazis have a continuously increasing spectra of ideas, the core of their ideology is still the same as in the 1930's. These people are by no means harmless clowns dressing up infunny outfits, they already manifold deserve to be called the same names as their predecessors.




S2W



(original in Russian: http://avtonom.org/index.php?nid=2851)

[aty]

Indeed one would think that even hardcore pacifists would start acting that way after all this.
But i dont think this is a matter of their willingness. I think it's a matter of nazis being protected by the government as they continously prove to be useful idiots to them.
In short, if a nazi kills an antifascist chances are little he is going to get caught prosecuted and sentanced. If it happens the other way around the state of legality suddenly comes into existance..
Yeah, probably, but I rather die fighting or end up in jail than just sitting and being scared and hoping not to be shot dead when I walk out my door the next time. Lets face it, the Russian antifa is already in it on life or death, but the nazis are not.

[Thirsty Crow]

My deepest sympathy...:crying::(

[Psych0]

On the 19th of November, the demo to honour the memory of Ivan «Bonebreaker» Khutorskoy, held by antifascists, took place in Chernihiv (Ukraine). In silence, holding the banners («*Vanya's portrait* 16th of November has been killed by nazis», «We won't forget, we won't forgive 16.11.2009»), antifascists has walked down the central city's streets, giving a leaflets, explaining the situation to passers-by (who couldn't understand what was going on).
antifa-action.org.ua/node/114

[The Ben G]

These scumbags dont diserve to see the light of day. RIP comrade.

[Bitter Ashes]

Is it worth asking the question about whether more could have been done by the individual and his comrades to protect him from this long string of attacks that was clearly leading to his death?

[proletar1917]

Rest in peace ,comrade !

[Fidel Follower]

We will remember.

[MaoTseHelen]

He sounds like he was a real tank in life.

:pours some out:

[The Ungovernable Farce]

Has anyone posted this yet? Vanya in his own words (http://libcom.org/news/vanya-bonecrusher-his-own-words-25112009).

[narcomprom]

According to the major russian language racist blog news.nswap.info BORN has claimed responsibility for that cowardly act. The same site reveals a year earlier photographies of brutally murdered and mutilated seansal workers, of 19 and of 20 years of age, sent to the press were signed by the same organisation.

The political climate in Russia it incredibly hard for ANTIFA to operate there. After Yeltsin and Gorbachev many Russians hold little of both liberal and leftist ideas. With the end of USSR came the end of migration restrictions and thus a large amount of lower class migrants appeared in, previously purely ethnic Russian, cities from various outlying federative republics and from the CIS. At the same Russia was tangled in an enduring war first with in Afghanistan and later in the Chechen republic.

The radical right, represented by the populist LDPR and the racist-traditionalist rodina, are the strongest force in the parliament after Gazprom's/Putin's United Russia party. The putinists often flirt with the radical right holding it's rhetoric in supremacist, antiwestern and homophobic tones. The Nashi is an official "anti-fascist" organisation that openly identifies any oppision, even if it's concerns are actually human rights, as fascists while true fascists are largely ignored. Unofficial organisations aren't tolerated there.

Putin fears to appear as too progressive to his inner public. The ideology of current Russian authoritarianism is resistance towards a supposedly decadent multicultural West.

[Sasha]

Bitter youth-faction conflict erupts after leader's killing

MOSCOW - A simmering confrontation between far-right youths and anti-racist activists has erupted into Moscow's streets after the fatal shooting of an anti-racist activist known as the Bonebreaker.

The violence stems from deep animosity between two aggressive camps with starkly different visions of Russia's future - neo-Nazi skinheads who rank in the tens of thousands and militant anti-racist groups that call themselves Antifa, short for anti-fascist.

Former punk rocker Ivan Khutorskoi, 26, provided security for meetings of antifascists. He also was known for organising underground bare-knuckle boxing matches among them, and taking part in violent attacks on ultranationalists.

Khutorskoi was gunned down in his apartment building on the city's outskirts on Tuesday. A day later, dozens of masked men pelted the headquarters of the pro-Kremlin youth group Young Russia with stones, trash and steel rods, Young Russia's leader said.

Kremlin critics say Russia's leadership created Young Russia and similar youth organisations to keep its political opponents in check and provide support, and sometimes muscle, on the streets.

Anti-racist groups claim they have close ties with the ultranationalists they call fascists or Nazis.

Nobody was hurt in the attack on the office of Young Russia. But its message, delivered first with projectiles and then over the internet, seemed clear.

"If no one but us tries to stop Nazis and those who provide cover for them, we will act by all means necessary," blogger Anarcho Punk wrote yesterday. Other anti-racist bloggers said the attack was retaliation for what they claimed were the group's links to Russian neo-Nazis. They "dedicated" the assault to their leader, Khutorskoi - an outsized figure and a role model among antifascists, who say he had survived three previous assassination attempts. He was shot twice in the back of the head near the door to his apartment on Moscow's eastern outskirts, police said.

Antifa groups have been rapidly adding to their ranks in Russia in recent years, said Galina Kozhevnikova, the director of Sova, a respected independent hate-crime watchdog monitoring group. She said their ideology attracts leftist-minded youth and people concerned about persistent hate crimes and xenophobia in today's Russia.

"The army of ultranationalists is definitely bigger, as the movement is much older," Kozhevnikova said.

Pro-Kremlin youth groups like Young Russia are also a significant force. Experts believe their emergence was a Kremlin response to the 2004 Orange Revolution in Ukraine, where youth groups played a key role in street protests that ushered a pro-Western presidential candidate to power.

Young Russia's leader, Maxim Mishchenko, said about 80 masked men attacked the office in central Moscow. A 22-year old attacker was seized by Young Russia activists and handed over to police, he said.

Anti-fascist bloggers claimed Mishchenko, a Russian parliament member with Prime Minister Vladimir Putin's United Russia party, has close ties with Russky Obraz, a radical ultranationalist group that antiracists claim was behind Khutorskoi's killing.

Mishchenko denied the allegations, calling them "an absolute lie".

- AP

[Bandito]

A comrade from Croatia provided this.
I's from a Solidarity March and the black flag says "Ivan Hutorskoy 1983-2009"