Nationalists Suspected in Russian Activist’s Death

November 18, 2009

Nationalists Suspected in Russian Activist’s Death

By MICHAEL SCHWIRTZ

MOSCOW — A young antiracist campaigner who frequently clashed with Russian nationalists has been killed in Moscow in what investigators and analysts suggest is probably part of an increasingly violent conflict between ultranationalists and groups that oppose them.

The 26-year-old victim, identified by antifascist groups and Russian news agencies as Ivan Khutorskoi, was shot in the head in front of his apartment building in eastern Moscow on Monday evening, the investigative wing of Russia’s Prosecutor General’s Office said in a statement on Tuesday. The statement, which did not identify the victim by name, said he was killed possibly because he was “an active participant in the antifascist movement.”

An unidentified police source was quoted by the Interfax news agency as saying that investigators were checking several nationalist groups for possible links to the killing.

Mr. Khutorskoi’s violent death is reminiscent of several fatal attacks in recent years against people associated with Russia’s so-called antifascist movement, a loosely organized group of mostly young activists that evolved in response to rising xenophobic and racist violence in Russia.

Darker-skinned Russian citizens and migrant workers are frequently the targets of attacks, with dozens dying each year in racist and xenophobic murders. Violence against antifascist campaigners, however, is not uncommon.

This month a man with ties to violent nationalist groups confessed to the murder last January of Stanislav Markelov, a lawyer, and Anastasia Baburova, a journalist, both of whom had connections to antifascist circles. Nikita Tikhonov, who has been charged as the shooter, said he killed Mr. Markelov out of revenge.

He did not elaborate, but a man with the same name had been wanted for the 2006 killing of an antifascist campaigner whom Mr. Markelov had represented.

Mr. Khutorskoi had been a visible campaigner against neofascist groups and the victim of several attacks in recent years, including one in 2005 that left him hospitalized.

An acquaintance of Mr. Khutorskoi, who asked to be identified only as Masha, confirmed in a telephone interview that he had been killed. She said that Mr. Khutorskoi, who was a social worker by profession, was a popular and influential member of antifascist and anarchist circles in Moscow — a fact that made him a likely target of violent neofascists.

“Every person who calls himself an antifascist risks the possibility of being killed,” she said.

In response to the violence, antifascist groups have increasingly adopted the tactics of their enemies, carrying out attacks against known nationalists, said Aleksandr Verkhovsky, director of the Sova Center, which monitors nationalist violence. He said the movements were locked in a simmering street war that appeared to intensify of late.

“They are certainly using more serious weapons,” he said. “Several years ago there were just fights and maybe they used sticks. Now knives are common and pistols are used frequently.”

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