Are fascists/nationalists the Islamists of the Russian Spring?

[Beet]

The below story, combined with Navalny's own past, is certainly interesting. It is important to note that while United Russia tolerated and encouraged moderate nationalism until 2009, for the past two years there has been a crackdown on hardline nationalist violence. There are also a lot of photos of the protests with people raising their right fist, which you see the fascists/nationalists doing a lot and would seem to be a right-power symbol. It really is fascinating how well these people would do in real elections (as opposed to online ones).

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http://globalvoicesonline.org/2011/12/23/russia-opposition-faces-online-communication-problems/

"...in the Top 30 list, four nationalists were on high positions, while on Facebook there was none.

This led to a controversy. An anarchist who called himself Ukrop ('dill' in Russian) stated that these online elections “were as falsified as the official ones.” Boris Nemtsov, leader of Solidarity movement, who had been caught cursing at his political allies, supported this idea. As one representative proposed: “Let an IT guy create a program that would make 2,000 votes in a few minutes and let everyone see how easy it's to cheat online with such voting.”

The option of using SurveyMonkey in the future seemed to be recognized as flawed. Then Bilunov proposed to use either Facebook or Democracy2.ru (an e-democracy platform created by the author of “Cloud Democracy” concept Leonid Volkov). Geidar Djemal had a Bolshevik-style proposal of choosing delegates based on their “political suitability” and not on poll results.

The nationalists, however, didn't like Facebook voting, claiming there were “only liberals” there, and that the choice of the platform would have a significant impact on the outcome of the voting."

[Beet]

Zyuganov is an old man. The Communists recently acquired a permit to rally 10,000 people; fewer than 3,000 showed up, and most that did were in their 70s or 80s, more about reliving the past than engaging in politics. When one of their speakers ended by calling for a return of the USSR at a recent mixed rally, he was booed offstage.

No, when the term "nationalist" is used in the Russian political context it means far right-wing political groups primarily motivated by anti-Caucasian sentiment that frequently tolerate or even encourage violence. Navalny, for example, is associated with such groups.

[Beet]

Here is a link.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/21/world/europe/communists-solidify-opposition-role-in-russia.html

Interestingly, it appears that the "coat of arms flag", erroneously called "Romanov dynastic flag": the official national flag of the Russian Empire from 1858 to 1883, is currently being used by Russian Nationalists and Monarchists.

It is black, yellow, and white.



When you see this flag, you know it is far-right nationalists or monarchists. For instance,



And here, you see it mixed with a flag depicting what appears to be a white bird on a red background with some text:



It would be a great help to us if there were actually someone on the ground in Moscow who could help us interpret the signals. It is almost impossible to diagnose such things from a distance.