‘We are not subject to Russophobia’. Russian politicians and Orthodox priests welcome inte
Source: Meduza.io
In mid-September, members of fascist groups from around the world convened in St. Petersburg, Russia. After joining a religious procession led by Russian Orthodox Church head Patriarch Kirill, delegates gathered in the city’s Legislative Assembly building, where they were welcomed by Russian politicians, far-right ideologues, and priests. According to Russian Orthodox tycoon Konstantin Malofeyev, the conference opened with a moment of silence for slain American right-wing activist Charlie Kirk. The independent outlet iStories detailed what happened at the gathering. Meduza shares an abridged translation of their reporting.
On September 12, the Mariinsky Palace in St. Petersburg — the seat of the city’s Legislative Assembly — hosted the founding conference of the far-right “Paladins International Sovereigntist League,” Russian Orthodox oligarch Konstantin Malofeyev said in a post on Telegram.
Delegates from fascist groups began the day by joining a religious procession marking the transfer of the relics of Alexander Nevsky, led by Patriarch Kirill. Soldiers and members of the far-right pro-Kremlin anti-migrant movement “Russkaya Obshchina” (Russian Community) marched alongside them, the local outlet Fontanka reported.
Among those present were Malofeyev himself, far-right ideologue Alexander Dugin, and Konstantin Chebykin, a lawmaker from United Russia. The chairman of the Legislative Assembly, Alexander Belsky, also from United Russia, prepared an opening address that was read out by a colleague, as he did not attend in person, according to the Hungarian far-right outlet Szent Korona.
Several priests also joined the conference, including Father Vladislav Malyshev, who ministered to survivors of the bombing that killed pro-Kremlin war blogger Vladlen Tatarsky and later received an award for “patriotic education.” Clergymen from Spain and South Africa participated via video link.
“The conference itself began with a Christian memorial service,”Malofeyev wrote. “A minute of silence for the slain young leader of American traditionalists, Charlie Kirk.”
Delegations from 20 fascist organizations attended in person. Speakers included French philosopher and right-wing ideologue Alain de Benoist; French-Swiss conspiracy theorist and far-right thinker Alain Soral; and Alexander von Bismarck, a descendant of German chancellor Otto von Bismarck who has publicly supported Germany’s far right. All three addressed the conference by video link, Szent Korona reported.
Among the groups represented were: Spain’s Falange Española de las JONS, whose members still give Nazi salutes and honor the Blue Division, a unit of Spanish volunteers who fought under the German Wehrmacht and took part in the siege of Leningrad (now St. Petersburg) during World War II; Democracia Nacional, another Spanish fascist party founded in 1995; and Mexico’s UNR (Unión, Nación, Revolución), which is tied both to Mexican fascists and the German neo-Nazi party Der III. Weg. A German delegate at the conference was photographed holding the UNR flag. Also present were France’s Les Nationalistes, a neo-fascist movement founded in 1983 by former members of the National Front and ex-SS officers, and Hungary’s Sixty-Four Counties, a youth movement calling for revision of the country’s borders as defined by the 1920 Treaty of Trianon.
“[Sixty-Four Counties] operates independently and autonomously, so we are not subject to the Russophobia prevailing in the West. In fact, the demonization of this nation’s sons has only deepened our interest,” Szent Korona wrote.
According to Szent Korona, the gathering also drew representatives from Italy, Serbia, Greece, Germany, Belgium, the United Kingdom, South Africa, Brazil, Argentina, and from Russia’s own Double-Headed Eagle Federation of Traditional Sports.
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