yes he was 'born in Russia.' we got that part.

[Note: The use of the term "Russian Organized Crime" is misleading since over 70 of the top Russian crime oligarchs also carry Israeli passports].

What has got me off on the Russians? I don't know. I have hope for the Russians, they are tough people. The Russian must be admired. They have endured so much and I admire them, I really do. There is something to be said for persevering, for raw survival, and they possess that trait in the same way Americans collectively possess the ability to persist in denial, apparently against all truthful assaults. Equally impressive in a disturbing sort of way. Maybe we're looking at two sides of the same coin. Maybe we need more vodka. Anyway, I like to think that Vladimir Putin is the one who escaped the mind-control matrix and plays along still because in this game of sudden death one has little choice, but we shall see. I've made mistakes about pinning my not-insubstantial hopes on mere mortals before, but I've read he broke free and that stuck in that place in my psyche where I preserve miniscule and even microscopic shreds of hope.

It bothers me that Alex W., who killed Marwa El-Sherbini, has received so much protection of his identity. Why should he? He's a vicious Russian who moved to Germany, that's about all we're supposed to know. For Some Reason.

Alex W's real name is Aleksandr Igorevich Nelsin.

There had been fears that a decision in the case could have been delayed by last-minute evidence that Wiens had a history of schizophrenia before he moved to Germany in 2003.

The suggestion of schizophrenia came in a faxed statement to the Dresden court earlier this week from the Russian Prosecutor-General's Office.

The statement said that Wiens, at the time known as Aleksandr Igorevich Nelsin, had been exempted from compulsory military service in Russia and was diagnosed in 2000 with "undifferentiated schizophrenia" occurring in worsening episodes.

Up until then, Wiens had been adjudged by German psychiatrists as sane and competent to stand trial.

Here you can read just about everything, including these details about his background:

...W stared impassively at the ground, with a hood pulled over his head, as the state prosecutor called for the maximum murder penalty. 'His guilt is especially great,' the prosecutor told the Dresden court, a different panel from that which tried the insult case. 'In the sight on her 3-year-old son, he butchered this mother as if he were a hired assassin,' said Heinrich, who said that the attempt to kill her husband, who tried to rescue her, was also intentional.^[23] Heinrich said W had continued to speak insultingly about al-Shirbini to the psychologist long after the killing. "That leaves me almost speechless," said Heinrich. W, who admitted last week that he hated non-Germans and Muslims in general, was born and raised in Russia.

...Prosecutor Heinrich said a statement from W, read aloud last week in court, had not even been an admission of guilt, but aired anew W's belief that he had been treated unfairly by the court in the criminal-insult case and had been in a "funny mood." In the statement, W had only said he was sorry because he faced consequences. "There was not one word about the tragedy he caused," said the prosecutor, adding that W had never even apologized to al-Shirbini's family which shows "he still does not grasp the harm he did." The prosecutor rejected the view of the defence that W had acted in the heat of the moment, saying, "He knew what he was doing and acted with the coldness of ice."^[4]

...Judge Wiegand said Alex W., who was unemployed, had regarded life in Germany as "multicultural shit" and believed foreigners were depriving him of work. She said he despised Muslims in particular and ignored the fact that he himself was not of German origin, she said.^[3] Werner Wendel, from the Dresden-based Foreigner's Council of Saxony, said that Alex W.' s sentiments were well known in the area. He was jobless and didn't think he could lead a prosperous life in Germany. "He didn't get a chance to become integrated in Germany. He didn't get a chance to be a member of this society. It's bad, but in the end one might say he became a loser under the German system of integration," Wendel said.

...Wiegand, the presiding judge, had abandoned her appeals to the defendant to behave properly out of respect for al-Sherbini and the court. Despite his insistence that Germany is his home, the defendant appeared to be unfamiliar with the laws and values of his adopted country. W. was born in 1980 in Perm, a city of a million people near the Ural Mountains, and spent his childhood in Russia. His parents were divorced when he was two years old. His mother, who worked as an architect and later as a goldsmith, spent many years living in Kazakhstan with the boy, who was already inclined to be unruly and defiant. He only stayed with his father in Perm for isolated periods. As a result of constantly being shuttled back and forth between his parents, the boy never experienced the kind of relationship that would help him develop his own identity.^[7]

...When asked about Russia today, W. frequently uses words like "hate" and "shit." A Russian of German descent, [sic?] W. has been living in Germany with his mother and other relatives since 2003. He obtained a German passport and changed his first name from Aleksandr to the more German-sounding Alex. He has considered himself a German, which apparently fills him with a strong sense of pride. His outlandish ideas, steeped in Nazi racial fanaticism, seen to stem from a time when people were granted or denied the right to live on the basis of their race.^[7]

...The document from a Russian prosecutor confirmed reports that W had been exempted from Russian military service in 2000 on the grounds of schizophrenia, though there was no record between 1998 and 2001 of him being in treatment for this mental illness. Presiding judge Birgit Wiegand urged W to reveal fast if he had had a schizophrenic episode when he stabbed al-Shirbini.^[23]

And this detail:

A self-avowed racist who stabbed to death a pregnant Egyptian pharmacist was diagnosed with schizophrenia and exempted from Russian military service in the year 2000, according to a statement read out in his trial on Tuesday. Alexander Igorevich Nelsin, born November 12, 1980, was treated for "undifferentiated schizophrenia," occurring in worsening episodes, according to the statement, faxed to Dresden by the Russian Attorney General.

The 28-year-old had ended his treatment by 2004, when his medical records were destroyed. In 2003, Alex W moved from Russia to Germany, where he took on his German mother's surname.

You still have to read between the lines to understand.