Bellona nuclear digest. August 2024
A survey of events in the field of nuclear and radiation safety relating to Russia and Ukraine.
News
Publish date: July 23, 2007
News
Russian media reported up to 15 people shouting fascist slogans attacked the environmentalists, who were living in the camp to protest against nuclear processing in the city of Angarsk near Lake Baikal, 5,000 kilometres east of Moscow.
Libertarian Communists from the ‘Atomic Action’ movement and people from the ‘Rainbow Guards’ movement took part in the anti-Fascist camp that was set up on July 14th, 2007. The ‘Atomic Action’ movement published evidence on their site from camp witnesses who believe that the attack was not connected with the camp’s environmental theme, but was rather a attack by Neo-Nazis on anti-Fascists.
This tragedy that destroyed the camp took place at around 5 am local time, not very far from the city’s 4th housing district. The people were beaten with metal bars and shot with air-pressurized pistols.
"One of the injured died in intensive care as a result of the attack," Ekho Moskvy radio station quoted one of the environmental activists, Olga Kozlova, as saying.
Another resident of the camp, Marina Popova, said the attackers shouted slogans against anti-fascists. "From that we can conclude they were Nazis or skinheads", she told the Vesti-24 television channel, blood seeping through a bandage wrapped around her head.
Environmentalists have not previously been the target of violent attacks in Russia, where skinhead gangs have assaulted and killed people from ethnic and religious minority groups in the past. Itar-Tass news agency said the man killed on Saturday was a 20-year-old from the far eastern port city of Nakhodka.
Thirteen attackers had been identified and four had already been arrested, said Interior Ministry spokesman Valery Gribakin. "Those arrested denied any involvement with any extremist youth group," Gribakin was quoted by Ekho Moskvy as saying.
Despite all the mistaken reports by the media, this camp is in no way connected to the all-Russian anti-nuclear camp that the international group ‘Eco-Defense!’ ‘Baikal Environmental Wave’ and ‘Baikal Movement’ are planning to hold from July 26th to August 2nd.
A survey of events in the field of nuclear and radiation safety relating to Russia and Ukraine.
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