If you have questions about Russia - come here! (Poll added!)

[justinian]

Great thread. I have visited Russia twice. Once as a tourist in 2005 for a week and for a football match at Zenit about two or so years ago.

It's history is wonderfully strange and is a hobby of mine. I also have friends from Russia so I have a ready source for any questions I may have have. One is a historical researcher, a job I envy.

However one thing puzzles me. I saw a Neo-Nazi march (or some gathering of Nazis, they were quite a few hundred of them, maybe thousands but i had had a bit to drink so maybe I was seeing double). I think it was in Moscow.

How is it this happens when the very regime they support considered Slavs to be sub-human? Isn't that like black people in the US having a KKK rally or Jews walking around with a placard of Hitler? I know there is a strong "white front" but why bring the Nazi element into it?

Isn't such things outlawed by the government considering it's bloody and personal past?

Talking of extremities I can see the neo far right gaining power in Ukraine. The guy that pretty much started the "revolution" is muslim and can possibly be considered. I can see Obama supporting him, even if just to piss off Putin.