On March 27, a nazi gang attacked a group of skaters in Izhevsk (Udmurtia). Stanislav Korepanov, 17, was severely beaten and hospitalised in the attack and, though operated on, died four days later.

As many as 400 young people attended a memorial meeting, on 3 April, at the location of the attack on him which had taken place late in the evening in the city centre, only a hundred meters from the palace of the President of Udmurtia.

In the assault, several dozen young men dressed as skinheads approached a small group of skaters and started to beat them with metal bars, empty bottles and wooden laths. One of the attackers was armed with a small hatchet. Several people sustained minor injuries but Stanislav, who was beaten by 5 to 7 people, suffered an open craniocerebral injury and other serious traumas. The attackers obviously thought they were attacking anti-fascists because, according to the victims', they were shouting "White power" and, allegedly, something like "Kill antifa".

Four people were detained on suspicion of committing this crime, but they were released later because they had, apparently, been caught just at random by the police. However, one of those who beat Stanislav Korepanov - the one who hit him with an empty bottle - was also detained and identified by the victims who said they even knew his nickname. Another person was put on a wanted list by police.

The Izhevsk district prosecutor's office has initiated charges of deliberate infliction of serious bodily harm leading through carelessness to death (Article 111(4) of the Criminal Code of Russian Federation). However, the incident does not really look like "careless bodily harm", considering the weapons the attackers had on them and way they were fighting. According to the prosecutor, the detained suspect admitted his participation in the attack but is remaining silent about his motives. However, as the prosecutor says, there is other evidence of his participation in so-called "extremist associations". According to journalists in Izhevsk, two attackers were recognised by the victims as supporters of Nikolai Baburin's People's Will party.

An interesting fact is that the attack was videotaped and the video was later posted on a neo-nazi website called Format 18 (http://www.format18.org/). The police found this video on the Internet and showed it to the victims, which obviously means that this website was known to them. However, nothing has been done to close down this website or to find its creators.

This is not the first neo-nazi attack on subcultural youngsters and/or anti-fascists in Izhevsk. Two years ago, Oleg S., an anti-fascist and anarchist was severely beaten by the members of a neo-nazi group called the Party of Freedom. Though the culprits were brought to justice the attack was not recognized as a hate crime by the court.