I cannot dispute the recent statement by Gleb Pavlovsky that we are surrounded by many extremist organizations. The paradox is that fascism as even a minimally influential, organized political movement does not actually exist in Russia.
In fact, there are a few dozen groups in Russia which declare themselves parties and unions. The numbers of these groups are small - a few dozen people at least, a few hundred at most. They are poorly- organized, they gather sporadically, conduct public actions, something like picketing, issue their newspapers. Since the circle of readers of these leaflets is small, they reveal no threat. It is easy to eliminate them, but is it necessary? When people say something - even if they express the most radical views - they let their steam off.
At one time, Russian National Unity (RNU) could have become more or less a party of a fascist nature; but it missed its historical opportunity which it had in the mid-1990s due to an incorrect choice of political strategy. Nowadays, the RNU has collapsed - into at least three relatively large groupings, with a hundred and fifty members each.
Limonov's National Bolshevik Party (NBP), which has chosen to work among the youth as its strategy, can be considered a more or less successful radical party in Russia over the past decade, which might be described as an extremist party. The NBP has been operating successfully enough. This is the only real organization to succeed as an organized force; that's why its leader was jailed.
There's nothing more significant in this sphere.
Undoubtedly, there are skinhead gangss in Russia. As the Interior Ministry and figures from other experts have it, their numbers are 10,000-15,000, with some 5,000-7,000 based in Moscow. As a rule, they form disorganized groups, gathering based on location. Skinheads do not like discipline. Therefore, none of the political parties can include them in their structure, even if any would wish that.
Despite the problems emerging of late, Russia is a considerably tolerant country. These issues are especially evident in big cities. When the ethnic-demographic balance changes, a negative reaction undoubtedly arises, primarily among the youth. Youth groups have always been the center of radical ideas. Many young people today have no social future. They know it perfectly well, they sense it with their skin. Given the kind of crisis Russia is undergoing now, the response could be more widespread in other countries. We have all kinds of objective factors favoring the appearance of a powerful form of extremism, including youth extremism. In my opinion, the inertia of the Soviet upbringing of internationalism is the reason, added by traditional tolerance of the Russians, the fear of authorities in general.
Undoubtedly, both skinheads and the RNU have been and are being used, but on a small scale, because they do not form power by themselves. These are not task forces and cannot be used to resolve any more serious political tasks, only as an argument in the political struggle as, for instance, to compromise Luzhkov when he decided to unite with Primakov - we all remember a RNU members marching through the streets in January 1999. Skinheads' pickets in support of Voloshin - "a purely Russian man," who is being harassed - are of the same nature. In the case, fascists are nothing more than pawns in a big game. The current notoriety might be connected with the fact that the law on extremism has stood the first reading and it is required that it could stand the second one. Nowadays, everybody is interested in stirring up the myth of the skinheads' power: the skins in order to earn some money, selling video tapes with recordings of "racist" assaults, the journalists are interested in making this threat monstrous to exploit a sensational topic: here's the threat to Russian democracy at the forefront. Moreover, it is a nice pretext to criticize Luzhkov, Putin, the police chiefs and anybody else.
The difference of the youth group is that since they have no clear ideological basis except for a set of emotions, and no organized structure, it is hard to trace them. It is unclear where the agents should be instilled and what they are supposed to trace, if fifteen people gathered in the evening, drank some beer, added some vodka, came out into the streets and beat somebody up. No spy would be of use here, even though there are some. This happens sporadically. In Russia we have enough means of suppressing such activities. The fact that the laws are not observed in Russia is quite a different matter, but this is not a problem of the skinheads. The police merely fail to cope with their duties, but this is the problem of the entire society and the state. (Translated by Andrei Ryabochkin)