Mongolia's 'Eco-Nazis' Target Foreign Miners

A silver swastika hanging around his neck, Boldbaatar Gombodorj points out his targets on a map of Mongolia like a World War II commander: little flags representing foreign mining firms that he and fellow "eco-Nazis" accuse of destroying their country. Mongolia's mining boom has brought the vast, sparsely populated country immense wealth but also inequality and ecological damage, and now fringe ultranationalist environmentalist movements are emerging in response. Herders have roamed Mongolia's steppe for centuries, while the country only threw off the Soviet yoke after decades of domination, creating fertile ground for a mix of communal land rights and nationalism that can turn into unashamed racism. "Here we want people with Mongolian hearts and Mongolian blood," says Gombodorj. [...]