It is a bad sign when headlines start to get confusing. Didn’t I read this before, a couple of weeks, or maybe a month, ago? Did an underpaid hack, suffering from a hangover on a slow news day, decide to do some creative recycling? Or are news stories starting to run together in my head for some other reason — perhaps because certain things are happening over and over again?
I had that feeling of deja vu when I read about the Monday attack on National Bolshevik Party activists. As many as 30 people, armed with baseball bats and, according to some eyewitnesses, with gas pistols firing rubber bullets, attacked a meeting of opposition youth groups attended by NBP members. At least three people were seriously injured. I felt like I had read this news item a couple of times before. No wonder: well-organized thugs had already attacked NBP activists three times this year, in March and in January during their meetings and once, in February, when a group of activists was returning from a rally. (more…)