Police Arrest Anti-Xenophobia Activists

The 15-day Xenophobii.NET (No to Xenophobia) Campaign ended in arrests,
when viewers leaving a film screening at Rodina film theater in the
center of St. Petersburg were dispersed by the police on Sunday. But
while the Russian media, from RTR television to Fontanka.ru news portal,
reported a mass fight between Antifa activists and neo-Nazis, both the
police and detained film-goers deny any fight took place.

“There was no fight, it was prevented,” police spokesman Vyacheslav
Stepchenko said by phone on Monday.

“It seems to be a provocation; the Antifa activists and neo-Nazis never
came into contact,” an anti-Nazi activist who only gave his first name,
Denis, said by phone on Monday.

“We tried to walk to the metro in an organized way so as not to be
attacked by neo-Nazis, when on Karavannaya Ulitsa we were jumped from
behind by policemen with batons. They started to throw us to the ground
and drag us into their vehicles.”

While the French documentary “Antifa — Chasseurs de skins” (Antifa: Skin
Hunters), the final screening of the “Open Your Eyes! International Film
Event Against Racism and Xenophobia” and the last event of the
anti-xenophobia campaign, was being shown, a group of neo-Nazis
reportedly attempted to attack the packed film theater, which drew more
than 500 viewers.

The attempt failed when the police arrived and detained several
attackers, according to Yevgeny Konovalov, chairman of the Russian
Social-Democratic Union of Youth and one of the campaign’s organizers.

“Around 30 beefy young men looking like boneheads (Nazi skinheads)
attempted to storm Rodina film theater with sticks and stones, but they
were scared off by the policemen,” Konovalov said by phone on Monday.

“Having seen the police, [the attackers] retreated immediately to Nevsky
Prospekt, but the police had time to detain three men. When I came out
to see what was happening, I saw two handcuffed men being put into a
police vehicle.”

According to Konovalov, Antifa scouts later reported that a large group
of neo-Nazis had gathered on Nevsky.

“In my view, it’s very strange,” he said.

“On the one hand, thanks to the police for preventing a nationalist
attack, but on the other hand, it’s not clear how they allowed them to
come in a large group to the film theater, and then to gather in a large
group, 40 or 50 men, on Nevsky Prospekt waiting to attack the people
returning from the film theater.”

A group of film-goers, mostly anarchists and Antifa activists, formed a
80-to-100 people formation to walk to the nearest metro along
Karavannaya Ulitsa to Nevsky, when the police attacked the group,
detained around 20 and drove them to police precinct 79, while the rest
ran away.

On Friday, a march held by anarchists in St. Petersburg in support of
the workers who took control of their plant in Kherson, Ukraine on Feb.
2, was brutally dispersed by the police who detained dozens of
participants. Some of the detained complained of being beaten, while two
policemen at precinct 79 where the detained demonstrators were taken
allegedly made Nazi salutes and shouted “Slava Rossii!” (Glory to
Russia!), the slogan used by neo-Nazis.

The police said 19 participants were detained and charged with violating
the rules for holding a public event. No comment on the beatings was given.

But Konovalov denied early reports on Antifa web sites that said that
the neo-Nazis and the police had acted in concert on Sunday.

“That’s not quite true, at least the police didn’t touch Antifa
activists as they arrived or during the show,” he said.

“The thing is that there are several branches of the police,” he said.
“There is the usual police, which is a patrol service that doesn’t get
to the heart of anything; what they really do is protect public order;
and then there is the former 18th Department of RUBOP (anti-organized
crime police agency), which has been turned into the Anti-Extremism
Department — it is often involved in unlawful activities and attacks on
Antifa activists.

“I think they were instrumental in the detainments, because we saw some
RUBOP men in police precinct 79, and among them one was recognized as
the same policeman who made a Nazi salute and shouted ‘Glory to Russia’
on Friday.”

Konovalov said that he and other activists had visited the precinct and
stayed there for some time to prevent possible beatings of Antifa
activists by the police officers.

“I think we influenced the situation, because when we arrived, 20 Antifa
representatives had already spent an hour standing with their faces to
the wall and hands behind their heads, and we demanded that [the
policemen] either start compiling reports or do something else, because
people should not be treated like this.”

Most of those detained were released after 1 a.m., when the metro was no
longer open, while three spent the night at the precinct. The police
said 18 were detained and charged with “disorderly conduct.”

Nevertheless, Konovalov described the campaign against xenophobia as a
“success.”

“Everything that happened [during the campaign] has only made our ranks
closer, while society was been shown that boneheads are not an
invention, these people do exist, they do have gangs and they are ready
to go to absolute extremes.”