‘No idea’: Former soccer hooligans from Española battalion give guest talk at St. Petersburg college
In St. Petersburg, two members of the Española battalion, a Russian military formation comprised of former soccer hooligans, visited a business college for an invited guest talk.
The talk took place at the State Technical College of Management and Commerce. The school’s administration has since disciplined five students for asking “inappropriate” questions during the meeting.
The speakers were particularly offended when asked about the meaning of the skull-and-crossbones patches on their uniforms. The student asking the question pointed out the similarity between those patches and the emblem of the German SS division Totenkopf. One of the fighters argued, in response, that a similar emblem has been used by Yakov Baklanov’s Don Cossacks, as far back as the 19th century.
The college administration was unhappy about other questions, too. One audience member, for example, asked how it was possible to “defend” the home country (as the Russian military claims to do) on the territory of another state. The audience applauded the question. One of the guest speakers then replied: “When your country is in danger, it’s possible to defend it from the territory of another.”
Another student asked how the two speakers believe Russia and Ukraine might develop in the future, eliciting another embarrassing answer:
This requires an understanding of what is victory and what is defeat. Naturally, we have no idea about this. Maybe our head of state is the only person who has any idea.
