Russian Jewish Federation protests skinhead book cover 

A Russian Jewish umbrella group has asked prosecutors to investigate the publication of school notebooks with a picture of skinheads on the cover. The notebooks reportedly have been sold for at least two years in a number of Russian towns, part of a series of notebooks showing members of various youth movements. Some schools reportedly have banned the notebooks. In a statement, the Federation of Jewish Communities of Russia says that the notebooks damage Russian schoolchildren by making role models of skinheads. Production of the notebooks represented an attempt to propagate an “inhuman youth skinhead subculture and is leading to a revival of neo-Nazi ideology”, the federation said. Experts estimate that about 50,000 skinheads are active in Russia, and many hate crimes, including violent attacks on dark-skinned and Asian minorities, have been blamed in recent years on members of skinhead gangs.