ABSTRACT
Dmitrii Taratorin had promised in his May Day statement that the secret tenets of Russkii Obraz’s ideology would gradually be revealed. During the summer of 2009, he and his comrades disclosed one of the most radical of these tenets: Russkii Obraz’s support for the campaign of terror waged by the neo-Nazi ‘underground’ in Russian cities and towns. Russkii Obraz’s campaign in support of the neo-Nazi ‘partisans’ became the most publicised political manifestation of the crescendo of racist violence on the streets of Russian cities during the second half of the 2000s. The backbone of the neo-Nazi underground was the internet. As an arena for the airing of grievances and the rationalisation of prejudices, the internet helped to indoctrinate new recruits and to kindle the motivation of experienced fighters. The Ryno-Skachevskii gang was the most notorious example of the rampant neo-Nazi violence during Putin’s second term, but it was far from alone.
