Nashi, the youth wing of Prime Minister Vladimir Putin’s United Russia party, denounced on Monday the “fascist ideas” expressed on the internet by the Norwegian man accused of killing more than 90 of his countrymen, including formation of a youth group on the Nashi model.
In his 1,500-page writings, Anders Behring Breivik called for a “conservative revolution” against multiculturalism and Islamic immigration to Europe, which he described as a “threat to Western civilization.”
The 32-year-old names the creation of a “modern, ‘un-tainted,’ cultural conservative, patriotic youth movement,” an “equivalent of Russia’s Nashi,” among other steps that should be made to eliminate the “threat.”
“Anders Breivik’s opinion, regardless of its subject, remains the opinion of a mentally ill person,” Nashi spokeswoman Kristina Potupchik said.
“Breivik has been pursuing the goal of destabilizing the situation in Norway and attracting attention to his fascist ideas,” she said, adding that the Nashi movement has been known for fighting against fascism – a fact that Breivik also admits in his manifesto.
Nashi “condemns what the Norwegian killer has done,” the spokeswoman said.
Breivik gunned down on Friday at least 86 people, mostly teenagers, who gathered at an annual Labor Party youth camp on the Utoya island. He was reported to have told investigators his act was “atrocious but necessary.”
Nashi itself hosts a youth camp each summer at Lake Seliger, which this year runs until early August.
Breivik will appear in court later on Monday on terrorism charges. He is also accused of a car bombing of a government headquarters in downtown Oslo, which killed seven people hours before the Utoya massacre. Police say Breivik is the only suspect.
He faces up to 21 years in prison if found guilty. The maximum prison term allowed under Norwegian law can be extended, however, if the individual is considered a threat to society.