Neo-Nazis infiltrating Russia scouts

Russian police and security agents recently arrested 13 people after they found neo-Nazi materials during a crackdown on a group specializing in illegal trade in arms and explosives.

The search was part of an anti-corruption crackdown tied to local elections, according to Yakov Zukerman, a Jewish activist in St. Petersburg who studies the phenomenon.

The group in St. Petersburg, led by neo-Nazis, operated under the cover of one of the city's youth scouting clubs.

Participation in black marketeering is accompanying -- and perhaps contributing to -- these groups' prosperity, particularly in St. Petersburg, the hotbed of the Nazi revival.

These clubs are officially permitted to search for the remains of World War II soldiers in order to bury them. According to unofficial reports, roughly 1,000 diggers are searching in the St. Petersburg metropolitan area, which contains many weapons and relics from the war.

"It has become a developed business here. Lots of young people are digging out and selling German and Soviet arms, decorations and World War II medals on the black market. Some of the guys make good money. Most of them are united in gangs and it is quite dangerous to get in their way," said Vladimir Briskman, a university student in St. Petersburg.

It makes sense that the youth groups have served as a breeding ground for neo-Nazism, Zukerman said.

Neo-Nazis are ready consumers of the newly found Nazi relics and sometimes of weapons, Zukerman said. They then use their contacts to infiltrate the clubs, turning a phenomenon that the KGB tried to infuse with Soviet patriotism into a font of racism and anti-Semitism.

During the recent searches in St. Petersburg, police discovered both old and new weapons, which the "scouts" were apparently planning to sell.