MOSCOW. Nov 15 (Interfax-AVN) - The Russian Interior Ministry has been monitoring some 150 extremist youth groups comprising a total of 10,000 people, Interior Minister Rashid Nurgaliyev said during a government question and answer session in parliament on Wednesday.
Eight such groups pose a real threat to public security, he added.
Extremist groups range from "soccer fans to well-organized and structured ultra-left formations that have ideological sectors, propaganda groups and combat units," Nurgaliyev said.
People under the age of 30 account for 80% of the membership of these organizations, the interior minister said. Most of them live in Moscow, St. Petersburg, and the Rostov, Voronezh, Samara, Murmansk and Nizhny Novgorod regions.
"Most of these young people "have been infected" with the dangerous virus of fascism, nationalism, xenophobia and racism," he said.