Vintage

“When Bristol university student Paddy Shuttleworth spotted an unassuming grey cotton T-shirt in his local Burton menswear shop, he was, to say the least, surprised; not by the price (a modest £12) but by the Cyrillic writing surrounding the doubleheaded eagle motif which, as a Russian language student, he was able to translate. Rather unfortunately, it read: "We will cleanse Russia of non-Russians!" 

"I did mention to the girl as I bought one of the shirts, that it was politically probably quite dangerous," says Mr Shuttleworth. The shirt's overall design is an odd jumble of ersatz French logo and Russian iconography, but there is no mistaking the nature of the sentiment, which uses the old word for Russia, "Rus" as a way of distinguishing between ethnic Russians and those with Russian citizenship. "I've spoken to a Russian friend," says Mr Shuttleworth, "and she said you would be arrested if you wore it in Russia."  

The phrase is typical of those painted on foreigners' homes by Russian neo-nazis. It also has echoes of the nationalist Rodina (Motherland) party's notorious 2005 political broadcast, which depicted dark-skinned immigrants throwing watermelon rinds on the ground along with the incendiary slogan "Let's Clean Moscow of the Rubbish". As a result of the advert Rodina was banned from participating. Initially Burton seemed surprised by the unsavoury sentiment lurking on its so-called Girlaun Print Crew shirt...."