radical nationalists: true till death?Thus, a more organised alternative to the current leaders of the
radical nationalists has begun to take shape. What is noteworthy
here is not so much the competition between these groups and
their leaders as their finding a form of activity that can simul-
taneously satisfy the most active core members, who are highly
inclined to violence, and the mass of potential supporters, who as
yet view the radical nationalists with clear mistrust and, in doing
so, not unduly provoke the law enforcement agencies.
The first half of 2014 showed that raids are not becoming more
widespread – perhaps again because of the distraction provided
by Ukraine, but possibly for other reasons. All the same, this par-
ticular type of action has retained its attractiveness and potential.
Broadly formulated: raids, or other forms of limited violence,
have more potential than efforts to instigate pogroms or simple
backstreet murders, because the public is more accepting of them
- as a rather unusual, but nevertheless necessary, form of civic
activism.
One serious problem remains: the organisers of this limited
violence need to become acceptable to a significant number of
citizens. In spring 2013 the large- scale NEORUSS survey revealed
that while one- quarter of the respondents held that Russians
usually beat up migrants ‘because they deserve it’, less than 20 per
cent disagreed with the suggestion that groups such as Russian
National Unity (Russkoe natsional’noe edinstvo) (RNE) or skin-
heads should be banned. At the same time, 45 per cent felt that
‘it is necessary to support armed Cossack formations and similar
patriotic groups and patrols’.^17 Of course, the citizenry may know
as little about skinheads as they do about Cossacks, but they
clearly believe that there exist unacceptable ‘very radical’ nation-
alists who are unconnected with the authorities, and acceptable
‘not very radical’ nationalists and other types of groups who
maintain links with the authorities and may use violence but
without going to extremes. This means that, although radical
nationalist raids may not yet have real popular support, radical
nationalist or other sorts of populist movements may gain politi-
cal weight in the future by combining political activity with this
sort of limited violence.