Nationalist “confesses” to ordering the killing of Russian anti-fascist
RTR Russia TV, St Petersburg
27 Jun 04
[Presenter] There was a ceremony to bid farewell to Nikolay Girenko at
the scientific centre of the Russian Academy of Sciences on Thursday
[22 June]. The murder of the ethnologist became one of the main
subjects of the past week. An investigation team has established the
basic facts. Tatyana Aleksandrova reports all the details.
[Unidentified men marching with torches, chanting] Clear off from
here. Russia is for Russians. We do not need Khachiks [an ordinary
Armenian name].
[An unidentified boy of around 13 with shaven head] We beat up
non-Russians.
[A man’s voice] How often?
[The unidentified boy] Nearly every day.
[Correspondent] Girenko was a Russian with a Ukrainian last name. He
was killed by a shot from a sawn-off rifle through the door after
asking politely: What do you want? The senior researcher at the
Institute of Anthropology and Ethnography, African-philologist
candidate of historical sciences was 64. His public activities
prevented him from defending his doctoral thesis. He worked as
anti-fascist campaigner for the last 20 years.
[Yuriy Chistov, director of the Petr the Great Institute of
Anthropology and Ethnography (Kunstkamera, collection of curiosities)]
In general, it seemed to us all that Nikolay Mikhaylovich was doing
extremely important work, but it [turned out to be] so
dangerous. Touch wood, there have [until now] been no cases of the
sort that people were killed so insolently and openly for their
expressed opinion.
[Correspondent] The extremist groups knew Girenko by sight. He was an
expert in nazi ideology who gave evidence in court hearings. Nazis
have openly confessed to having murdered him.
[Vladimir Popov, captioned as the leader of the Russkaya Respublika
(Russian Republic) organization] The verdict has been carried out at
my command. I do not know who carried out it, and nobody is likely to
know it. We shall erect a memorial to an unknown hero.
[Correspondent] There is the signature of this frail young man at the
end of verdict No 1 of the tribunal of the self-proclaimed Russkaya
Respublika. Popov is not trying to escape even following his
confession on the Internet.
[Nikolay Vinnichenko, St Petersburg prosecutor] We have in practice
not had this sort of situation before. On the one hand, this all
resembles farce. On the other hand, I shall reiterate, since the
information is rather serious, that our attitude to it is appropriate.
[Correspondent] The verdict against the murdered professor contains a
list of all the cases he was involved in, including this one accusing
the [chief] editor [Pavel Ivanov] of the Russkoye Veche nationalist
newspaper of inciting ethnic discord. It was brought to court thanks
to scientific evidence given by Girenko and the firm position of the
city prosecutor].
[Valeriy Zheltkov, Velikiy Novgorod prosecutor] Through this sort of
incitement – I quoted examples in my speech, the events started in
Sumgait [now Azerbaijan] and the Fergana valley [now Kyrgyzstan and
Uzbekistan] here [in the Soviet Union] at the end of the 1980s –
large-scale massacres happened on the basis of peoples’ ethnic origin
or religion. Everything starts precisely from all this. This is basic
incitement.
[Correspondent] But the [court] victory turned out to be illusory: a
R10,000 [345 dollars] fine instead of four years in prison. A court
appeal cancelled the ban on journalistic activity. Pavel Ivanov has
replaced a typewriter with a computer, and he is continuing to expose
the world-wide Zionist plot.
[Pavel Lepshin, lawyer] It is best of all that the leader of a nazi
group gave an order in written form. So-and-so is to beat up
watermelon seller [Mamed] Mamedov by such-and-such a date. Pupkin,
Khryapkin [imagined names] and others are to be commissioned to kill
Mamedov. Their titles in the hierarchy of their nazi community should
be mentioned – I forgot, their membership cards as well.
[Correspondent] All this is not an invention of legal theorists but
ordinary legal practice. A few years ago local TV gave extensive
coverage to an event which occurred in one district of the city. A
candidate for a seat in parliament [Denis Usov] handed out leaflets in
the whole constituency, which had the programme’s statement: I want to
evict blacks.
The prosecutor’s investigation found the canvassing to be absolutely
legal.
[Olga Anisimova, acting prosecutor in Frunzenskiy district, St
Petersburg] He said that according to the encyclopedia, there are red
and black cockroaches and he called [on people] to engage in cleaning
the city of black cockroaches. He did not mean anything else but
zoological points.
[Correspondent] Girenko’s colleagues admit that he may have been the
only expert in the country who could create a scientific method to
expose fascist propaganda. He decided to use the method since he
understood the source of the danger unlike those people who pass by
swastikas on the walls with indifference.
[Girenko, archive footage from Russia’s TV St Petersburg in 2002] If
society follows their way of doing things, society will collapse. It
will be the deepest delusion of those who will have contacts with them
to think that they are fools, uneducated people who simply have
nothing to do.
[Unidentified marching men] [We say] Yes to Russians and no to
(?foreigners).
[Video shows the words being typed: The world Judaic plot. The black
Egyptian priesthood; a leaflet saying, The deputies of the (?15th)
municipality have initiated a programme of the eviction of people of
Caucasian ethnicity from the district. We are honest, kind and open
people. They were brought up differently. Signed: Denis Usov; The
rhymed graffiti reads, The Jews are at the Kremlin, but were are in
shit; another graffiti goes, The crematorium is waiting for the Yids]