Most underappreciated band ever:

http://youtube.com/watch?v=vC0ufEXliuc

And of course the obligatory Circle Jerks/Debbie Gibson Soft Boys cover song. This is sheer awesomeness: http://youtube.com/watch?v=cNoFAOHAQ94

I know they actually brought people in from cities in surrounding regions by bus for that one, to create a crowd. My wife’s cousin took it as an opportunity for a free bus ride into Moscow. She grabbed their early morning bus, didn’t go to the march rally, but instead went shopping and took a train home.

I’m generally the first in line to criticize remarks about Russia or Putin being fascists, etc. However, Russia seems soft on these neo-Nazi fascist types. I’m quite sure they could be prevented from marching or prosecuted under the existing extremism laws.

Regarding Robyn Hitchcock – yes, I’m a fan of lots of quirky music. The first album of his that I ever purchased was Robyn Hitchcock and the Egyptians – Gotta Let This Hen Out. It’s a great live album, I still know practically every word to those songs. I’m less familiar with his Soft Boys stuff, but I should probably find and give it a listen.

Although I would like to point out that Other Russia, though people keep refering to it as liberal, is about 80% NBP.

IIRC what usually happens with Other Russia is that they request a particular marching area, get told that they have to go somewhere else, and then show up at the first place after having given the word to foreign journalists so they can get themselves being oppressed on film. That’s what happened in Moscow anyway.

It seems pretty clear to me that Russian extremism laws should permit facists to march and preach hatred.

In a conversation with a Russian friend of mine about this, I summarized my observations as follows: “any liberal is labeled as being an agent of the West or USA … but the facists – they are assholes, but at least they are russian assholes.”

But they do march…

“I’m actually rather surprised that Russia doesn’t have laws strictly banning neo-Nazi organizations, paraphernalia, writing, etc., much like Germany. Arguably, no nation suffered more than Russia during that war.”

True on both points.

This link was forwarded to me by someone who said it was extremely biased, but anyway: http://xeno.sova-center.ru/6BA2468/6BB4208/9D8E370?

The fact is, under the Russian extremism laws, the neo-Nazi marches shouldn’t be permitted at all. But they are permitted and to some extent even protected by the government. The same can’t be said of similar marches by more liberal fringe groups or parties.

I think this steers all politics in Russia further to the right or extreme right, and to some extent legitimizes racist points of view.

I would love to get my hands on a comprehensive list of arrests for various groups and marches across Russia. But obviously, no such data exists and would be open to some interpretation.

I’m actually rather surprised that Russia doesn’t have laws strictly banning neo-Nazi organizations, paraphernalia, writing, etc., much like Germany. Arguably, no nation suffered more than Russia during that war.

I’m going to have to see some actual data regarding enforcement of these laws, prosecution patterns and so forth, before I actually believe this is true.