“Death to liberals! Death to anarchists! Long live Novorossiya! Long live Russia!” enthused Aleksei Zhivov (leader of the Right-Conservative Alliance) in concluding last Saturday’s rally in Moscow in support of “Russian Donbas”.
The rally had been organized by the “Battle for Donbas” coalition, set up in June of this year as a coalition of nineteen far-right Russian-nationalist organisations. Apart from Zhivov’s Right-Conservative Alliance, the coalition also includes:
Eurasian Union of Youth; National Patriots of Russia; National Patriotic Forces of Russia; National Liberation Movement; Russian Demography; Slavic Literature and Culture Foundation; Martyrs and Christian Confessors Foundation; Green Ribbon Patriotic Movement; and the Yekaterina Gubareva (“wife of the legendary Pavel Gubarev”) Foundation.
According to the coalition’s pre-rally press release, the event had a very basic political message:
“We are holding a rally to support Novorossiya, the militia of Strelkov, and the liberation of Kiev from American occupiers and Ukrainian Russophobes, … (and to oppose) the new project of Ukrainian Nazism which is full of hatred for Russia and Russians, the Russian-Orthodox religion, and the shared thousand-year history of Little Russia and Great Russia.”
“Donbas must survive! Donbas must win! We call (on Russia) to provide military-technical support to the Donbas militia and, if necessary, to carry out targeted missile-strikes on the mercenary forces of the Kiev junta.”
Placards among the 3,000-strong crowd carried the same message: “Crimea is Russian – the Battle for the Donbas Continues”, “Our Name is: Strelkov”, “Putin – Send in the Troops”, “Either Putin and Strelkov, Or You Are a Traitor”, and “Radio Echo Moscow – Fifth Column in the Mass Media – Clear Out of Russia.”
(Radio Echo Moscow is one of the few Russian broadcasters which criticise Putin. It has been regularly denounced by Russian nationalists as ‘the enemy within’. When Zhivov called for “death to liberals”, he was referred specifically to its journalists:
“Clouds are gathering above us in the Moscow sky. Soon there will be the roar of thunder which will destroy the offices of the broadcaster “Dozhd” and Radio Echo Moscow. Death to liberals!”)
Apart from a speech, via video-link, by the Donetsk People’s Republic People’s Governor Pavel Gubarev, the main speaker at the rally was Alexander Dugin, leader of the Eurasian wing of Russian fascism.
His demands were simple: “Behind the Kiev junta stands the USA, and they will not tolerate a strong, free, proud and victorious Russia. Putin, recognise the Lugansk People’s Republic and the Donetsk People’s Republic. Putin, send in the troops!”
In his opening contribution Zhivov, the rally’s main organizer, cited Russia’s annexation of Crimea as the model to follow:
“If you want to be friends with a Europe in which Gay Parades take place, then you can be friends with it. But without us. The Crimea staged a referendum and our President united Crimea with Russia. Crimea was saved! And the all the rest of Ukraine can be saved in the same way as well.”
“They have declared war on us, we must be united and stand in solidarity, defending the Russian world. Long live Strelkov!” continued Zhivov. The crowd chanted back: “Hurrah! Putin – give the order to the troops!”
“United Russia” Duma member Yevgeny Fedorov proposed a novel approach to determine the constitutional status of south-east Ukraine: “The only way to preserve its sovereignty is to stage a referendum in Russia for the unification of the Donbas (with Russia). On to victory!”
Other speakers spoke of the ”war against Russia in the Donbas” and called for the use of Russian troops to “liberate” Lugansk and Donetsk” and then “Russian Kiev” as well. One of the official banners on the stage also carried the slogan: “Battle for Kievian Rus’.”
The speakers’ contributions were not always consistent with one another.
A Ukrainian journalist who spoke of the horrors of war, for example, was immediately followed by a speaker from the Movement for the Legalisation of Handguns, who called on members of the Duma to immediately return from their holidays and pass emergency laws allowing the creation of private military companies.
The rally was followed by “a two-hour-long fundraising patriotic concert in support of Igor Strelkov and a free Donbas.” The music was doubtlessly of the same calibre as the speeches.
Pictures of the event at: