Mr Markelov had been a vital link between anti-fascist activists, such as Ms Baburova, and the police.

ECONOMIST: The far right in Russia

Anti-fascist group Unite Against Fascism held a counter-protest against the EDL, which said it was against Islamic extremism in the UK, at the same event.

BBC: Dudley 'to ban' future EDL rallies

Those who criticise Portillo's apparent "conversion" evidently know very little about his diverse background as a son of an anti-Fascist Spanish socialist and a teenage Labour party supporter.

BBC: Portillo: The right person for the Tories?

Nikita Tikhonov, a 29-year-old ultra-nationalist who has admitted the murders, had been on the run since 2006, when a group of skinheads knifed to death a 19-year-old anti-fascist student.

ECONOMIST: The far right in Russia

But police and anti-fascist campaigners say that Combat 18 has been so thoroughly infiltrated that it is incapable of mounting such an attack without the authorities knowing in advance.

ECONOMIST: Crime

History, however, shows that Reza Shah was neither a fascist nor an anti-Semite.

CENTERFORSECURITYPOLICY: Exonerating the Iranian people