RUSSIAN VIGILANTES

To the Editor:

Re "Russian Vigilantes Fight Drug Dealers" (news article, March 4):

In addition to the apolitical vigilante groups you describe, the violent
neo-Nazi organization Russian National Unity has over the last few years
profited from the lack of effective Russian police response to crime.

In Yekaterinburg, a police officer and four of his R.N.U. comrades raided
suspected drug dealers' apartments throughout 1997. In January of last
year, a judge ordered the men freed, praising their handiwork as socially
useful.

In 1999, R.N.U. toughs mounted joint patrols with police in the provincial
cities of Voronezh, Bryansk, Kstovo and Kostroma, and the mayors of
Stavropol and Balakovo openly voiced their support for the hate group,
which promises to bring order to Russia's crime-ridden streets.

Nickolai Butkevich, Washington, March 4, 2000

The writer is research and advocacy director, Union of Councils for Soviet
Jews.