Russian neo-Nazi jailed for forcing prostitutes to march naked

SAINT PETERSBURG: A Russian court on Monday jailed a former martial arts champion and notorious neo-Nazi for three and a half years after he forced 12 prostitutes to walk naked through the streets of Saint Petersburg.

Vyacheslav Datsik broke into a small hotel that also functioned as a brothel in the centre of the northwestern city in May 2016 after declaring a "war on prostitutes". 

Acting with accomplices, he then forced 12 women and a man -- allegedly a client -- to follow him to a police station while still naked. 

Datsik told police that he "just wanted the women to march in their work uniforms". 

He was found guilty of hooliganism, breaking into property and a "premeditated attack on the health of others".

Investigators also established that Datsik stole 50,000 rubles ($863, 700 euros at the current rate) from a safe in the brothel and beat up three other women. 

Datsik, a former kick-boxing and mixed martial arts (MMA) champion, was first arrested in 2010 after robbing several mobile phone stores. 

He was then placed in a psychiatric facility, from which he escaped and fled to Oslo in 2010, where he unsuccessfully appealed for asylum while carrying a loaded gun. 

He was promptly arrested.

He was later photographed in an Oslo courtroom wearing a black T-shirt with a swastika and -- despite wearing handcuffs -- making an improvised form of Nazi salute.

Sentenced to eight months in prison in Norway for illegal possession of weapons, he was then extradited to Russia in 2011.