Ultranationalists becoming more brazen in Russia, human rights
activists say

Ekho Moskvy radio, Moscow
5 Jul 07

[Presenter] Journalists should not help incite interethnic strife by
their publications. This call is contained in a book by Vera Malkova, a
researcher with the Ethnology and Anthropology Institute of the Russian
Academy of Science. Human rights campaigners are also concerned with a
rise in extremist sentiments in society. Andrey Gavrilov reports.

[Correspondent] The number of xenophobia-related crimes is rising. In
January-June this year alone, there were 35 murders and more than 200
attacks on non-residents. These figures were given today by the
director of the Moscow Human Rights Bureau, Aleksandr Brod. He noted
that those who come from Azerbaijan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Armenia
and African countries were the most likely to be attacked. Moreover,
Brod pointed out, whereas before attacks happened late in the evening
or at night, now they can occur in broad daylight in a crowded place.

[Brod] Radical nationalists are acting more and more aggressively and
ostentatiously, attacking and killing in the streets and on the
underground quite openly. More and more often they use methods of an
openly terrorist nature – one can recall the explosions at
Cherkizovskiy market, the explosion at McDonald’s in St Petersburg, the
explosion on the Moscow-Groznyy train. Radical nationalists are showing
off their aggressiveness, their might; they have their own armed units.

[Correspondent] Brod is worried that there can be a significant rise in
the number of xenophobia-related crimes in the next few months. The
director of the Moscow Human Rights Bureau links this to the election
to the State Duma due in December. He thinks it is possible that a
number of parties and movements will try to play the nationalist card
to their best advantage, using chauvinistic slogan s in the process.

He expressed regret that the authorities, both federal and Moscow ones,
have no thought-out system to fight those who incite interethnic strife.

[Brod] It is hard to speak of a state strategy. It is just sporadic
pinpoint actions. Say, the other day at a State Council meeting in
Rostov-na-Donu the president spoke of the need to counter youth
extremism – and two days later Tesak was arrested.

[Correspondent] Let me remind you that Maksim Martsinkevich, known as
Tesak [the Hatchet], is the leader of the Format-18 group of skinheads.

Human rights campaigners have urged journalists to be more cautious in
choosing their words so as not to provoke interethnic clashes
themselves. Vera Malkova, a Russian Academy of Science researcher who
published a book on the subject, complained that xenophobic headlines
and reports can be found in many leading Moscow and federal
publications. This, she said, should not happen.

[Presenter] Aleksandr Brod promised that starting from September, human
rights campaigners will monitor this area more closely.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress