Press release, 11.05.2016

Member of YABLOKO Federal Political Committee Sergei Mitrokhin forwarded a request to the Investigative Committee and the Prosecutor General’s Office asking that they check the activity of the People’s Liberation Front nationalist movement (NOD) for extremism.

The movement headed by deputy of the State Duma Evgeny Fedorov uses such slogans as “the Central Bank of the Russian Federation submits to the USA”, “The Constitution of the RF was written by American advisers”, “At the moment the strategic control at the territory of the Russian Federation is exercised by the US State Department”. At the same time, Fedorov calls for the change of the Constitution of the RF, in other words for the overthrow of the constitutional system of Russia.

Mitrokhin claims that the activities conducted by the NOD are becoming more aggressive and the number of their supporters is growing.

“The activists of NOD mask their activities with false patriotic slogans and attributes. At the same time their real goals are not fully clear but the escalating aggression and the increasing number of marginal supporters of the movement cause alarm that a large number of people who are aggressively set against the current state institutions may get out of hand,” Mitrokhin claims.

On 28 April, the NOD activists attacked the award ceremony for high-school students who had participated in a history contest which was organized by Memorial, a prominent human rights group. The activists gathered around the building where the ceremony took place. They were shouting insults and spraying green disinfectant at the event attendees. Russian writer Lyudmila Ulitskaya, the jury member, was also attacked.