If the current atmosphere of repression in Russia was not suffucating enough, a new 'trend' is crossing the boundaries from just perverted ideology to downright crime.
The new fad, which is taking the Russian internet by storm, and gaining disciples every day, consists of posting a video of a gay man being assaulted and beaten, then bandied about in the video.
One such video, which has gone viral in Russia, is one that surfaced just last week, and has sent Human Rights Activist scrambling for a plan to put a halt to the trend before more gay people are hurt.
In the video, a Russian Neo Nazi holds a seminaked gay man by the hair and shows the result of his beating.
What makes matters much worse, is that in response to the posting of the video, many Russian have actually applauded his actions.
The Neo Nazi, whose name is Maksim Martsinkevich, has even put together his own network, which he has called Occupy Pedophilia, but his intention is to harass and harm gay people.
In the videos, he often beats the gay men, or puts them through humiliating routine, including being doused with urine.
One of the things that is truly appalling, is that he says that he would like to finish them, after the beating, but that he doesn't because he "is not allowed". It is only a matter of time, before his expressed wish to see all gay men dead is taken up by someone who is not so fearful of the consequences, and his videos might very much provide the inspiration and motivation for the act.
The larger problem is that wider networks, such as the television channel REN-TV, a popular tv station in Moscow, has joined in the witch hunt against gay men. They have even made a small documentary of the group's activity, incuding the beating, which they stood by and filmed as it was happening, and then broadcast it with the title, 'Pederast' or child molester.
The Neo Nazi Maksim is one whose activities are well known, and well tolerated, by Russian authorities. He has killed before. In 2005 he and his previous association, called the Format 18, a tag that was used during the Hitler regime, beat and killed an immigrant from the Stan provinces. He even posted the video online.
In another video from the group Format 18, which he founded, another man, a Tajik, was seen hanged and then hacked to pieces. Later on, the latter video was found to be a fake video, but the fact remains that such incendiary postings promote hatred and crimes against gay people and minorities.
The numbers of people who are coming to the Neo Nazi site is growing rapidly, with people willing even to finance his 'crusade' by giving him money.
Maksim is now outside of Russia, since the authorities are now looking for him, but not to prosecute him for his anti-gay crimes, but rather for ties to a group known for sedition and extremist political ideas. In fact, Maksim did go to prison once, but only for disrupting one of mayoral candidate Navalny's events.
Source : Spiegel Intl/ 11.18.13
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