Russian environmentalists attacked, one killed

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Reuters AlertNet – Russian environmentalists attacked, one killed

Russian environmentalists attacked, one killed
21 Jul 2007 11:08:38 GMT
Source: Reuters
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MOSCOW, July 21 (Reuters) – A Russian environmentalist was beaten to death and seven others wounded on Saturday when a group armed with iron bars and baseball bats attacked their camp near a nuclear waste processing plant in Siberia.

Russian media reported up to 15 people shouting fascist slogans attacked the environmentalists, who were living in the camp to protest against nuclear processing in the city of Angarsk near Lake Baikal, 5,000 km (3,125 miles) east of Moscow.

“One of the injured died in intensive care as a result of the attack,” Ekho Moskvy radio station quoted one of the environmental activists, Olga Kozlova, as saying.

Another resident of the camp, Marina Popova, said the attackers shouted slogans against anti-fascists.

“From that we can conclude they were Nazis or skinheads”, she told the Vesti-24 television channel, blood seeping through a bandage wrapped around her head.

Environmentalists have not previously been the target of violent attacks in Russia, where skinhead gangs have assaulted and killed people from ethnic and religious minority groups in the past.

Itar-Tass news agency said the man killed on Saturday was a 20-year-old from the far eastern port city of Nakhodka.

Thirteen attackers had been identified and four had already been arrested, said Interior Ministry spokesman Valery Gribakin.

“Those arrested denied any involvement with any extremist youth group,” Gribakin was quoted by Ekho Moskvy as saying.


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