Counter-extremism unit raid MARTIAL ARTS event in Moscow held by Antifa in honor of slain leader Bonebreaker (VIDEO)

Russian Antifa fighters who teamed up for a martial arts championship in Moscow found themselves rounded up by counter-extremism officers right in the midst of the tournament, it has been reported.

The gathering was meant to honor the memory of Ivan Khutorskoy, a legendary Antifa organizer better known under his nickname ‘Bonebreaker’, who was killed by radical right goons ten years ago.

However, it took an unexpected turn for the fighters and the fans alike as officers from Russia’s department for countering extremism raided the premises taking people for identification and questioning.

A security source told TASS that up to 25 people were detained. A video published on Twitter by a Telegram channel Baza showed black-clad police officers lining Antifa activists, some of them bare-chested and ready for sparring, next to a wall.

Pictures surfacing on social media, and apparently showing the raid, feature weapons, including knives and what looked like pneumatic guns.

According to the Telegram channel ‘Antifa jokes,’ the cops wanted to know if any of Antifa members took part in mass riots in Moscow this summer. The Russian capital saw tens of thousands of people taking to the streets, after authorities banned a number of candidates from running in a local election over violations during registration process.

Although many rallies were peaceful, some unauthorized protests ended up in clashes with police and resulted in over 2,000 detentions in late July and early August. Most of the detainees were promptly released, but some people were charged with attacking police and disturbing public safety.

One of the Antifa movement’s leaders, Vladislav Barabanov, who was reportedly among those detained on Sunday, was earlier suspected of taking part in the riots, but charges against him were eventually dropped.

Khutorskoy, an anarchist and leader of the Russian branch of the international network called Red & Anarchist Skinheads, was gunned down near his Moscow home on November 16, 2009. He was one of several Antifa figures whose deaths were pinned on a radical Russian nationalist group called BORN.

The same gang was also behind the high-profile murder of human rights defender Stanislav Markelov and journalist Anastasia Baburova in January 2009. The group’s ringleader stood trial in 2015 and was sentenced to life in prison.

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