To: GUSTAVE JAEGER who wrote (12600 ) 4/19/2003 4:08:55 PM From: rrufff Respond to of 21614 Is tomorrow a special day for you? Enjoy!! ============================================================ Russian police on alert for skinheads around Hitler's birthday By The Associated Press MOSCOW - Police across Russia are to be on alert this weekend, paying special attention to diplomatic missions and universities attended by foreigners, in an attempt to head off skinhead attacks around Nazi dictator Adolf Hitler's birthday Sunday, a top police official said. "In large cities, especially Moscow and St. Petersburg, law enforcement agencies will also control places where skinheads gather, as well as subway and railway stations," the Interfax news agency quoted Deputy Interior Minister Alexander Chekalin as saying Friday. According to the Interior Ministry, Russia is home to up to 15,000 skinheads. Some 5,000 of them are in and around Moscow, up to 3,000 are in St. Petersburg, and other large cities have up to 1,000 skinheads each. "The police are ready to oppose skinheads' actions," Chekalin was quoted as saying. "They should not think that they will get away with breaking the law." However, human rights advocates and victims of extremist violence have complained in the past of police inaction in the face of skinhead threats and attacks. Russia's extremist and neo-Nazi groups have targeted dark-skinned immigrants from poverty-stricken formerly Soviet Central Asia and the Caucasus Mountains region, as well as Africa, East Asia and other distant regions. Last year, several markets in Moscow, which are staffed mostly by traders from the Caucasus and Central Asia, closed on Hitler's birthday to avoid violence.