OVER 140 YOUTH EXTREMIST GROUPS OPERATE IN RUSSIA – INTERIOR MINISTER

MosNews, Russia
June 28 2006

Russia has more than 140 youth extremist groups with overall membership
reaching 6,000, the country’s interior minister said Wednesday,
RIA Novosti news agency reports.

"Youth groups have become more aggressive and better organized, and
some of them are under the influence of criminal organizations," said
Rashid Nurgaliyev. He spoke to reporters in the Armenian capital,
Yerevan, where he is attending a joint board session of Russia’s
interior ministry and Armenia’s police force.

Nurgaliev expressed concern over extremist organizations’ promotion
of violence among the younger generation. "It is worrying that some of
the extremist organizations use violent forms and methods of protest,
promoting them among young people," he said.

The minister said law-enforcement agencies had launched anti-extremism
raids in 38 of Russia’s 89 regions so far this year, tracking
down groups believed to be behind serious crimes, including in
St. Petersburg and in the southwestern region of Voronezh, both of
which have acquired reputations as sites of Russia’s most violent
race-hate crimes.

Voronezh has seen at least seven apparently racially motivated killings
of non-white foreigners over the past six years, including the murder
of a Peruvian student last October.

St. Petersburg has been suffering from negative publicity over alleged
neo-Nazi attacks and killings, including the killing of a student
from Senegal in April and the stabbing of a nine-year-old girl of
mixed Russian-African origin in early 2006.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress