Norwegian mass killer Anders Behring Breivik praised, not only India's Hindutva, but also Russia's leader Vladimir Putin and his youth movement.
Breivik called Mr. Putin “a fair and decisive leader, deserving of respect”.
“At this stage I am not sure whether in the future he will be our best friend or our worst enemy. … But I'd rather not have him as an enemy,” Breivik wrote in a 1,518-page English-language manifesto for “cultural conservatism” posted online shortly before his rampage.
He said Europe's “dysfunctional” democracy of the masses should be replaced by a “controlled” one modelled on the Russian system, and he applauded the pro-Putin youth group Nashi as an example of an “untainted' conservative patriotic youth movement” that Norway should emulate. Western Europeans should create “cultural conservative student organisations” to propagate the new ideology.
“This movement should be somewhat like the equivalent of Russia's Nashi movement,” the Brevik's manifesto says.
Breivik said he knew Mr. Putin would have no choice but to publicly denounce him.
The Kremlin indeed rushed to denounce the embarrassing praise. Mr. Putin's spokesman Peskov said that Breivik was “raving mad.” “He is the devil incarnate, absolutely mad. No matter what he wrote or said, this is the delirium of a madman,” the spokesman said.
Nashi, which means “Ours” in Russian, also denounced Brevik's “fascist ideas.”
Nashi is often criticised as an aggressively pro-government movement. Some have labelled its members Mr. Putin's “stormtroopers” likening them to a paramilitary organisation of the German Nazi Party.
Russians laid piles of flowers outside the Norwegian Embassy as they paid respects and wrote condolences in a guest book.
