Russian Ultras: The Euro 2016 Hooligans With MMA Training

The Russian Ultras Who Want To Show English Hooligans ‘Are Girls’
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  • MMA trained, equipped with knuckledusters and mouth guards
  • Bumbags used to conceal weapons
  • Operate in small, compact and mobile groups
  • Euro2016 is ‘hooligans holiday’ for ultras
  • Slogan t-shirts, banners and stickers created for tournament
  • Russian hooligan groups drew up official 'rules' in December...
  • ...But now they are breaking them 
  • No. 1 rule is 'not to carry knives'

Football hooliganism has a terrifying new face – in the highly trained form of the Russian ultras.

Viciousness and organisation are the hallmarks of these "firms", who have put aside their domestic rivalries at the Euros 2016.

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A Russian fan smashes a chair over an England supporter as another attacks him on the ground as they clash ahead of the game against Russia on June 11, 2016 in Marseille, France
Carl Court via Getty Images

With the exception of Polish hooligans who are known to carry knives, they are the most consistently violent around.

Last weekend, Marseille's southern seaport was turned into a battleground, as they launched coordinated attacks against English supporters in the old port area before and after Saturday’s European Championship match.

French prosecutors say some 150 Russians were behind the violence.

They were "like grasshoppers that destroy everything and leave," Bruno Trani, who represents the CRS riot police in the Marseille region for the Alliance police union, said in a phone interview with The Associated Press, estimating their numbers at up to 250.

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A bloodied England fan is detained by police personnel as fans gather in the city of Marseille, southern France, on June 11
LEON NEAL via Getty Images

"When you see a compact group moving together, slam into a group of English people and then move away again in a group you can tell that they are organised," Trani added. "(They) left no chance to the English who were drunk and tired by alcohol and the sun."

Such was the sheer brutality that even strict Russian codes of hooligan combat were broken.

Back in December, hooligans groups drew up a charter called "Hooligans in Russia with new code(s)" - stipulating the rules to be obeyed without exception.

Among the main points, translated into loose English, were:

- "You start fight only with other hooligan group" - so no attacking non-consenting fans.

- "During Russian national team matches, all groups must be united, without fighting each other." Clearly obeyed.

- "(Person) on the ground must not be attacked! You can attack him only if he is able to continue the fight." Clearly not obeyed.

A Moscow public relations manager who considers violence a sport told AFP about the group’s hostility towards England fans.

Lokomotiv Moscow follower Vladimir, who was in Marseille, said: “It doesn’t matter which city fans come from or which team they support. It’s important that we’re all from Russia. We are going to fight the English.

“The English always say they are the main football hooligans. We want to show that the English are girls.”

Claiming most ultras have little interest in the football games and don’t care if the team is disqualified, Vladimir added: “The aim is to come and prove that English fans aren’t hooligans, they don’t know how to fight. A lot of Russian guys come specially with this aim.

“For us it’s like sport. We don’t have a desire to kill or injure. There is a desire to show our strength.”

Describing England fans as "big older men who drink a lot of beer", Vladimir said: "Fans or hooligans from Russia are mainly younger, aged 20-3- and at home most of them are into sports. They do sports like boxing or all kinds of martial arts. 

This week all eyes will be on chillier northern France, but it remains to be seen whether tensions have cooled.

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Fans clash after the UEFA EURO 2016 Group B match between England and Russia at Stade Velodrome on June 11
Lars Baron via Getty Images

Russia plays Slovakia in Lille on Wednesday, and England faces Wales the next day in Lens in cities just 30 kilometers (20 miles) apart - raising the prospect of more clashes. Trains from England stop in Lille.

What also stood out during last weekend's melees was the differing fighting styles, revealing the degree to which the Russian hooligans prepare.

While the loose-shirted or topless Brits swung loose haymakers, Russians advanced swiftly with their fists raised up, bobbing up and down in a protective style often used in MMA (Mixed Martial Arts) fighting. Highly athletic and physically toned, they are a far cry from the red-faced, beer-bellied English hooligans once running the show abroad in the 1970s and 80s.

"They were there to smash the British," Dominique Mesquida, who represents the CRS in the Marseille region for the Unite SGP Police-FO union, told AP in a phone interview, speaking of how the Russians operated "in small, compact and very mobile groups" and had knuckledusters.

"They were equipped" Mesquida said. "(They) knew what they were going to do."

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Fans of Russia support their team during Euro 2016 group B football match between England and Russia at Stade Velodrome in Marseille, France on June 11
Anadolu Agency via Getty Images

Mesquida said the CRS were told the match was high risk but hadn't been specifically warned to watch out for Russian thugs.

Russian football has long been awash with violence, however.

The gangs Zenit St. Petersburg's "Music Hall" and "Vesyolye Rebyata" - the name of a 1930s musical and Soviet music band from the 1960s that translates as Happy Guys - would normally take on Spartak Moscow's "Aliens" or "Gladiators" in a remote Russian field. These filmed pre-arranged fights with even numbers are then posted online. Taking a heavy beating is often preferable to running away and losing reputation.

Usually, Spartak or Lokomotiv Moscow would be trying to take the scalp of city rival CSKA - kingpins of Russia's hooligan world along with Zenit, for whom "Music Hall" are one of their several firms. When Zenit confronted Spartak on a car park 11 years ago - in the early days of filmed fights - 250 were on each side.

On the European scene, Zenit are very active. One night, they arranged a meeting with hooligan counterparts from German side Eintracht Frankfurt.

With car lights illuminating a somber field, a slow and chilling chant of "MU-SIC HALL, MU-SIC HALL, MU-SIC HALL" fills the air. Sounding like they are marching into battle, they then overwhelm Frankfurt's Brigade Nassau firm within two minutes in a blur of precision kicks and punches.

Combining their considerable forces, Russian groups caused carnage in Marseille, scenes unprecedented in European football since English hooligans fought with locals in the same city during the 1998 World Cup.

It also seemed like a hooligan's holiday for the Russians.

Some had T-shirts with "Lokomotiv" on them; others had "Zenit on Tour" on theirs, while one group all had the same black t-shirts on like a regiment.

There were banners and stickers from smaller crews such as Arsenal Tula and one from the city of Kaluga.

During a particularly nasty fight in Marseille, a dozen Russians approach a similar number of English.

Chairs and bottles are thrown and then the hand-to-hand fighting begins. The combat seems roughly even at first, but then all of the English back off at once, as if collectively overawed.

Except for one man.

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One incident saw a single England fan being ruthlessly beaten by Russian ultras
YouTube

Wearing a bright red shirt, somewhat portly in shape and appearing to be in his 40s, he stands and trades punches with two Russians before going to ground.

But rather than leaving him, two other Russians come across and simultaneously aim hard kicks to each side of his head, sending him slumping forward onto his face. In another incident, an Englishman was in critical condition after being repeatedly hit over the head with an iron bar.

The No. 1 rule among Russian hooligans is supposedly not to carry knives, in a bid to distance themselves from their Polish counterparts.

But assistant chief constable Mark Roberts, the head of Britain's Euro 2016 policing operation, told The Guardian that some Russians - who had fingerless martial arts gloves and mouth guards - also carried knives.

"One England fan was stabbed," Roberts said. "Most carried bum bags, possibly to conceal weapons."

How so many ferocious hooligans managed to get into France is startling.

The UK government confiscated the passports of 3,000 people identified as hooligans to prevent them from traveling, the French Interior ministry says.

Germans provided a list of 2,500 troublemakers. But Russian authorities provided just 30 names.

Igor Lebedev, a nationalist Russian lawmaker who sits on the Russian Football Union's board, seemed to praise those who fought.

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Igor Lebedev tweeted: 'I don't see anything terrible in fans fighting'
NATALIA KOLESNIKOVA via Getty Images

"I don't see anything terrible in fans fighting. In fact, well done our guys," he wrote on Twitter. Speaking to The AP by telephone, Lebedev later said he believed fans causing disorder should be punished by Russian authorities but said it was wrong to "disgrace" them.

Andrei Vdovin, a columnist with Russian newspaper Komsomolskaya Pravda, wrote on Monday that some hard-core Russian fans are not interested in football at all.

"The so-called 'active fans' have a European championships of their own," Vdovin said. "Russian fans are the odds-on favorites at this alternative Euro, and they will want to prove their strength again. Fights will happen. Not all of them will be reported. Active fans often have fights out of town, they agree on them ahead of time, and (the fights) last just a couple of minutes. Sometimes one of the groups does a big public stunt. This time it was the Russian fans who did this."

Only Polish hooligans are arguably more dangerous, particularly when Wisla Krakow faces sworn city enemy Cracovia. Last week, one Wisla group posted a picture online of a hunting knife alongside a passport - suggesting they are coming to France.

Four years ago, Russia vs. Poland on June 12 saw the worst fighting of Euro 2012.