I've encountered the first Russian skinhead documentary roughly 5 years ago and it quite shocked me. I've now and then seen some fresh documentaries emerge with an even hightened level of violence and basic disregard of human nature. This seems to be a real growing issue and I was wondering (since I've never been to Russia) how things really are. Is this just a youtube propaganda to scare people? Are things really that bad as depicted? Please share your opinions and experiences.

I've included a documentary that I've recently watched. (Warning: it contains violent graphic images)

sad...just another group of stupid ignorants

The level of deliberate violence is really terrible.

I know, a friend of mine was mobbed in Moscow, he is Peruvian also and dark skinned and they really bit the crap out of him sent him to hospital where he woke up 3 days later and nobody spoke English...quite traumatizing!

I can imagine! Did he recover alright from the incident?

It's always difficult to know with this type of story to what extent it's a scare so that some journalist can sell his TV channel or newspaper, and to what extent this is an accurate picture.

But if this were really a serious endemic rather than just an insignificant handful of skinheads in a country with hundreds of millions of inhabitants, then I think we'd be hearing much more about it, and the more serious media channels would be talking about it as well. This why I classify it in the scare story category for now.

I've come across some nasty skinheads in East Berlin and Rostock where I worked- but nothing quite like this. Although I came close to being duffed up by a group of skinheads in a late night train. I still shiver at the thought. Mind you watching a documentary about the English Defence League last week- you could sense that some were not too far from this.

I've been to Russia but only for 2 weeks and didn't feel there were tons of nazis walking about. I know a guy from the carrabian who was there for 3 months in a student exchange programme and while once in a while some people did act funny towards him, he was never attacked.

I agree though there seems to be a far higher than normal rate of racism and violance towards foreigners and homosexuals in Russia but as has been mentioned I think it's difficult to judge it going by one documentary. I'm sure a documentary like this could have been shot in many countries, including the USA, UK and Germany. No matter where you go though the arguments are always the same. It's always someone else's fault

And remember young people like that love attention. Give them a beer or two, encourage them by saying how much you agree with their views and then turn the camera on and see what they do, of course editing out vast amounts of boring or reasonable stuff and keeping the extremes. That's modern journalsim for you.

Well this was some years ago, they stole everything he had on him, the funny thing is that he has Russian ancestry!!! He said he wouldn't go back there ever! I can understand...

No see, apparently there are political organizations backing thehm up...these are not a bunch of kids being bored etc. This seems to be something much bigger (judging from all the documentary I've seen).

To be honest, I watched the whole thing and it didnt shock me. Well, the groups of neo-Nazis and skinheads existed since 60's and 70's or even ealier and almost every white Caucasian country had fair share of these anarchist scumbags and lowlives who stir more hatred and shit than actually do anything good as they claim in the video. I would still suspect that Russian front is not so large compare to the other countries like the States. Brings memory of the movie called "American History X". I have seen those groups in many countries although never experienced any clash with them. I believe some of them are just bunch of kids and pretenders who follow fashion like punks and heavy metal mania but some could be hardcore fanatics who believe that thru propaganda and brainwashing will gain some political influence.

Personally as amolges pointed it out I wouldn't worry much as these groups are minority and will never gain any serious support in country with million of citizens. They would get their asses kicked by emigrants first!

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These people are just vile. Scumbags with twisted ideologies. Dont get me started because I can go on and on.

Is it only 19 minutes? really good documentary. wish it was longer which prompted me to do a further google on the documentary's title and this is a really well written piece on the same subject if anyone's interested. They've described themselves as the "white man's Al Qaeda" - says alot. How clever, ho ho ho.

http://www.time.com/time/magazine/ar...674718,00.html

This is what they said at the beginning of the rise of Nazis. Russia in a terrible state at the moment, with a tiny minority of hugely rich, and the rest in desperate poverty. How naive to think these gangs will just 'go away and fizzle out'.

Thanks for the input! Indeed, there are other documenties, one in particular by Ross Kemp which is very informative. I feel the ready for violence that these particular groups have is simply disgusting. Also, I've read up on a beheading of 2 muslims by a Russian neonazi group in 2007...which I find very gruesome.

http://channel.nationalgeographic.co.../3953/Overview

The American version.....

actually jacek, with the world becoming smaller by the day, the ease of immigration, blurring of the borders by technology, fueled by the greed of the MNCS to maximise profits by minimising labour costs, I wouldnt be surprise if these people are much more organised and connected to each other than they were in the 60s and 70s. Not all of them are skinheads, decked out in leather jackets, doc marten boots and gather in a barn listening to black metal. Those are the minions. The smarter ones wear suits, become a politician and crudely disguise their racist agendas for the "welfare" of their country. PAH!

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Considering that summerain's article is dated back to 2004 and neo- Nazis have been around for a while their presence won't fizzle out easily. Like the dickwad at the end of the article said they are like Al-Qaida and fight their own jihad. However, Assumption that they will ever grow to size of the III Reich is a bit of fairy tale and paranoia. I'm not saying ignore, but do not become obsessed. They always try to use notion of skinheads in almost every incident to spice up the stories. Wasn't it a case of Brasilian lady who claimed being abducted by alike last year?

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This is something completely different. In the US, you are allowed to have a group with a main focus on racism. However, as I understand the situation in Russia is that the skinheads are backed by a politcal party and actively engage in violence against anybody who isn't Russian. Many people die from these organized attacks...there is a whole movement behind it and not like in the US a bunch of bored rednecks with sheets over their heads.

I ran into a lot of this sort of thing in South Africa...really scary.

I think as the world shrinks the problem becomes more public but I think that the number of these sorts of bigots and idiots is actually falling.