GOVERNMENT TAKES OVER XENOPHOBIC HATE CAMPAIGN FROM EXTREMIST GROUPS
By Yuri Zarakhovich

Eurasia Daily Monitor
Nov 14 2008
DC

A 2007 attack by Russian neo-Nazis is recorded on video (Der Spiegel)
The November 5 election of Barack Obama marked an historical watershed
to many in the United States and elsewhere in the world, culminating
decades of civil rights efforts and the fight against racism and
encouraging new hopes for the recovery of the American dream.

A day earlier, on November 4, Russian neo-Nazi skinheads
fatally stabbed an ethnic Uzbek in Moscow and badly
knifed another in a racially motivated attack in Moscow
( l). Also
on November 4 participants of the nationalist "Russian
March" in downtown Moscow badly beat up a Turkmen diplomat
() .

Racially-motivated attacks are increasing with frightening speed and
violence.. In 2007 Russian neo-Nazis and other nationalist groups
killed 73 and beat up 580 people in attacks against non-Russian
minorities.

By November 5 of this year, 81 had been killed and 320 wounded in
xenophobic attacks according to the SOVA Analytic Center, which
monitors neo-Nazi and other nationalist crimes in Russia, reported.

SOVA’s deputy director Galina Kozhevnikova told the Eurasia Daily
Monitor on November 12 that although the number of such attacks might
have decreased, they have obviously become far more violent. SOVA
estimated the number of attacks from January 1 through November 5 as
"somewhere around 700." At the same time, Kozhevnikova believes that
many more such attacks go unreported, while the attackers and the
police seek to present the reported ones as mere hooliganism rather
than racist assaults.

Russian courts are reluctant to establish the true nature of such
beatings and murders, citing the lack of professional expert
witnesses. Indeed, just a handful of such experts exist in the
country, and their work is extremely dangerous. Nikolai Girenko, the
most skillful and principled of such experts, was shot dead through
the door of his apartment in St. Petersburg on June 19, 2004, as he
identified himself to the killers. Russian investigators believe that
his murderers belonged to St. Petersburg’s notorious neo-Nazi group led
by Dmitry Borovikov ().

According to a poll taken by the VTSIOM sociological center on June
1, 68 percent of Russians (75 percent in Moscow and St. Petersburg)
view ethnic immigration into Russia as a negative phenomenon
( ss-vypusk/single/10274.html).

Novaya Gazeta, a Moscow-based liberal biweekly, wrote on March 3
that 55 percent of Russians supported the nationalist "Russia for
the Russians" slogan ().

Mass clashes between ethnic Russians and ethnic minorities have, in
fact, been common for some time. The following are just a few examples:

–On April 21, 2001, some 200 Russian extremists staged a pogrom
at the Moscow Yasenevo metro station and badly beat at least
10 Azeris. In March 2005 some 200 Cossacks destroyed Armenian
shops and cafes in the littoral Black Sea city of Novorossiysk
( _2.html#1).

–From August 3 through September 3, 2006, there were mass clashes
between ethnic Russians and Chechens in the northern Russian town of
Kondopoga ().

–A bomb set off by a Russian nationalist at Moscow’s Cherkizovo
market on August 21, 2006, killed 12 and wounded more than 40
().

–Some 300 Russians and people from the Caucasus clashed on May 24,
2007, in the Southern Russian city of Stavropol. At least one person
was killed in the clash, and the police had to use arms to disperse
the crowds ().

— On June 8, 2008, four Russian nationalist groups, including
the most notorious Movement against Illegal Immigration (DPNI)
united into a single movement to fight ethnic minorities
( /).

–On November 10, 2008, up to 70 Russians and immigrants from the
Caucasus clashed violently in the Moscow suburb of Solnechnogorsk. Both
sides used firearms, knives, and iron clubs, leaving seven people
badly wounded. In September a similar melee with Uzbek immigrants
had left two dead ().

Ost ensibly, the state has finally started paying attention
to the nationalist menace. On November 10 Vladimir Markin
of the Investigative Committee of the Prosecutor’ General’s
Office stated, "Growth of extremist crimes remains stable"
( 2878759.shtml). Galina
Kozhevnikova, however, sees here a certain rivalry on the part of
the state, which is now eagerly trying to assume nationalist slogans
for its own use. Kozhevnikova points out that on November 4 the Young
Guards Youth Movement (MGER) of the ruling United Russia party led by
Prime Minister Vladimir Putin signed a cooperation agreement with the
Mestnye (Locals), another pro-Kremlin group, "on actions and other
measures to oppose illegal immigration." MGER and Mestnye are taking
an active part in the anti-immigrant campaign now unfolding in Russia
().

As the economic crisis hits Russia ever harder, xenophobia and hate
crimes are certain to be on the rise, she believes, and will be used
by the government to help keep control and divert potential social
unrest onto immigrants and other ethnic minorities.