In an unprecedented action by Russian court, members of a neo-Nazi organization have received long prison sentences.
Igor Pirozhok, 28, the leader of the neo-Nazi group known as the Werewolf Legion, was sentenced Wednesday to five years in prison for hooliganism and inciting racial and ethnic hatred.
Pirozhok was sentenced by the court in Yaroslavl, a city 130 miles north of Moscow.
Another member of the organization, Victor Baranoz, 23, received a nine-year prison term for homicide and hooliganism.
The group, which was formed in the spring of 1994 in Moscow, includes about a dozen youths allegedly bent on carrying out acts of terror.
The legion was reported to have set the “final solution of the Jewish question” as one of its major goals.
Before the organization was broken up by Russian Federal security forces in July 1994, Werewolf members has been preparing to carry out acts of terror.
A laboratory for the production of explosives was discovered on the premises of the organization.
Shortly after it was organized, the Werewolf Legion allegedly attempted to set fire to the Olympic sports hall in Moscow, which was serving as the site of a Messianic Jewish conference.
The group was also reported to have planned a series of arson attacks on movie theaters that were showing the acclaimed Holocaust film “Schindler’s List.”
Prior to his arrest, Pirozhok said in interviews with the several Moscow newspapers that “Democrats, Yankees and kikes should be wiped out ruthlessly.”
JTA has documented Jewish history in real-time for over a century. Keep our journalism strong by joining us in supporting independent, award-winning reporting.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
