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Total membership of neo-Nazi groupings in Europe exceeds 7 million

An alarming spead of neo-Nazi ideology can be seen in Ukraine, as well as in Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, and Poland

MOSCOW, May 18. /TASS/. Total membership of neo-Nazi and nationalist radical goupings in Europe exceeds 7 million people and one may get an impression people in this part of the world are growing oblivious of the horrors of World War II, Nikolai Patrushev, the Secretary of Russia's Security Council said on Thursday in an interview with Rossiyskaya Gazeta daily.

"Neo-Nazi ideas are making a comeback to Europe," he said. "The data available to us suggests the EU has more than 500 neo-Nazi and radical nationalistic groupings, often consisting of youths, and their combined membership exceeds 7 million individuals."

An alarming spead of neo-Nazi ideology can be seen in Ukraine, as well as in Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, and Poland where the authorities' policies fan the spread of Russophobia, anti-Semitism and neo-Nazism.

Speaking of the situation in Ukraine, Patrushev said the absence of whatever accountability for the actions like the arson and gunning-down of innocent people in the House of the Trade Uniond in Odessa, the killinds of journalists and politicians, the threats of physical reprisals addressed to the veterans of World War II, or the outrages of the radicals against everything linked even in the minimal degree towards the Russian people and Russia.

"Europe is not only watching the formation of nationalistic groupings in Ukraine placidly," Patrushev said. "What's more, it doesn't condemn the criminal offenses committed by Ukrainian nationalists."

In a number of European countries, neo-Nazis are holding marches and torch processions accompanied by public displays of Nazi emblems, paying respect to Nazi ciminals, holding the solemn ceremonies of their reburial, and erecting merorials to the thugs from SS legions on the sites of destroyed monuments to Soviet soldiers.

"Nationalistic milieu are settingup mobile strike groups that can be used for organizing civic disobedience actions and mass disorders in their own countries and abroad," Patrushev said in conclusion.