Moscow, Russia – Moscow’s Mayor Yuri Luzhkov said he had banned a march in the Russian capital planned by far-right groups, to prevent another show by neo-Nazi groups and racists.
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National Unity Day, which last year officially replaced the traditional anniversary of the 1917 Bolshevik revolution, marks the 1612 defeat of invading Polish troops by poorly clad and barely armed Russian irregulars.
But the holiday, meant to demonstrate the unity of Russia’s multiethnic nation, last year degenerated into a show of ultra-nationalist groups who marched through Moscow and other cities with swastikas and greeted each other with Nazi Germany’s salute “Heil Hitler!”
“I have taken a decision to ban the so-called ‘Russian march’,” a stern-looking Luzhkov said.