CAN FOREIGNERS IN THE RUSSIAN FEDERATION CAUSE INCONVENIENCE FOR THE NATIVE POPULATION?

PanARMENIAN.Net
29.11.2006 GMT+04:00

Can Russia maintain its relations with the few allies, or to be more
exact, with the few partners he has in CIS?

The murders based on national and racial discriminations, committed
during the last year in Russia, raised a very serious problem; will
Russia be able to maintain its relations with its few allies, or to be
more exact its few partners in CIS. First of all the matter concerns
Armenia, which, regardless the lofty words about "the centuries’
friendship", suffers the most from the Russian nationalism and
chauvinism.

And in spite of the soothing words from the Russian side, the situation
still becomes worse.

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ With some unknown reasons, the 15 years old
Armenian boy was killed on the threshold of the international day of
tolerance. Does it mean, that killing a foreigner is still considered
a normal phenomenon, or if not a heroic act in Russia? After all,
it didn’t start only yesterday, but before the revolution of 1917,
when the slogan "Kill the Jews, save Russia" didn’t give rise to any
doubts. Today only the nationality can be changed in this slogan,
and it can be used without raising any indignation.

Separate opinions of writers or publicists, of course, do not count,
as the ideologists of "Russia for Russians" hardly ever read them.

If the Russian Federation doesn’t need allies in the Caucasus,
then this matter can at least be fixed without killing innocent
people. Or else Russia has got into the habit of spreading fear all
around, so that even today, in the XXI Century it hasn’t given up
its old methods. Organizing cultural events within the frames of the
Armenian Year in Russia is hardly timely in such conditions. Thereupon,
another question rises; how can a conscript, feeling hatred to the
representative of another nationality, be sent to serve in the 102
Russian Military Conscript Base? Who can guarantee, that none of the
soldiers will decide to open fire on the local population? Maybe, this
is a little exaggerated, but the Armenians have many times believed
in the "brotherhood with other nations", but today we must be ready
to everything.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs, RA has appealed to the Ministry of
Foreign Affairs and to the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia, with
the request of carrying out most operative investigation of the case
of the 15 years old Armenian citizen, murdered in Russia. According
to the acting press-secretary of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs RA,
Vladimir Karapetyan, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, RA is keeping
the eye on the situation and hopes that the murderers will be arrested
in the nearest future.

The RF Ministry of Internal Affairs, to our delight, responded at
once. "The RF Ministry of Foreign Affairs publicly condemns this
and other crimes, committed out of nationalism. We will press for a
detailed investigation and will do our best to bring the offenders to
account. Xenophobia is far uncharacteristic of our nation, and of the
basis of Orthodoxy and is widely condemned by Russia", the official
representative of the RF Ministry of Foreign Affairs Michael Kaminin
announced.

In contrast to the statement made by the RF Ministry of Foreign
Affairs, the Deputy Director of the Federal Migration Service
Vyachislav Postavnin announced that his country mustn’t tolerate
"ethnic enclaves" in its territory, where the foreigners "may cause
inconvenience for the native population". He thinks that the number
of the foreigners living in any part of Russia must not exceed the
17-20% of the population. "In case the number of the migrants exceeds
this limit, it may arise discomfort or dissatisfaction of the local
population", stated Postavnin in an interview with the Russian Office
of BBC.

Earlier, on the occasion of unprecedented political conflicts between
Moscow and Tbilisi and inter-ethnic disorders in different parts of the
country, President Vladimir Putin spoke about the need of "protecting
the native population". Only the whole trouble is that, it is hard to
define who is considered native population in a country, where there
are about 100 nations and national roots. We like to cite the USA as
an example regarding its attitude to the national minorities. In the
States they do not have this notion. They are all citizens of the
United States, and for calling somebody "Niger" or "Latino" one can
be seriously penalized. It is obvious that Russia is not America, but
in this case, one should not speak about democracy and human rights.

"PanARMENIAN.Net" analytical department

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress