Racism in Russia during the 2000s

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Members of Russian National Unity group in a street parade

Racism in Russia during the 2000s appears in the form of negative attitudes and actions towards people who are not considered ethinically Russian. This includes antisemitism and a general demeaning attitude to northern indigenous peoples of Russia, as well as hostility towards various Caucasian/Central Asian ethnicities (whether of Orthodox Christian or Muslim faith).

According to Semyon Charny of the Moscow Human Rights Bureau, there are an estimated 70,000 skinheads in Russia,^[1] and surveys show that xenophobia and other racist expressions affect 50 percent of Russians.^[2] A survey conducted by PEW in 2007 showed that 72% of Russians agreed that there should be further restriction and control on immigration, compared to 75% of Americans, 75% of Brits, and 62% of Canadians.^[3]

1 Rise in reported hate crimes
2 Hostility towards Caucasians/Muslims
3 Antisemitism
4 Hostility towards Chinese
5 Hostility towards Africans
6 Violence against anti-fascists
7 References
8 External links

[edit] Rise in reported hate crimes

In May 2006, Amnesty International reported that racist killings in Russia were "out of control" and that at least 28 people were killed in 2005.^[4] In 2006 Amnesty International registered 252 victims of racist crimes, of which 21 died. In February 2007, President Vladimir Putin asked the Federal Security Service to combat racism,^[5] but the number of reported hate crimes still increased. From January 1 to July 31, 2007, Amnesty International registered 310 victims of neo-Nazi and racist crimes in Russia; 37 of those victims died as a result of attacks. Amnesty International criticized Russian police for not doing enough to combat racist crimes, and for often ignoring reports from civilians about threats and crimes.^[6]

According to the Moscow Human Rights Bureau, from January to March, 2008, 49 people were killed in assaults by radical nationalists, 28 of them in the greater Moscow area.^[1] The alarming figures have motivated authorities to take a tougher stance. More crimes are being investigated as racial attacks, and more are going to court. In May, 2008, eight skinhead extremists were found guilty of a 2006 explosion in the Cherkizovo market that left 14 dead and 47 injured, most of whom were immigrants from the North Caucasus and East Asia.^[7] Semyon Charny from the Moscow Human Rights Bureau says: ”The fact that this case found its way to court, and the example of people sentenced to life for the Cherkizovo market blast shows that we are moving in the right direction - but there's still a lot to do.”

[edit] Hostility towards Caucasians/Muslims

In Russia, the term Caucasian is a collective term referring to anyone descended from the native ethnicities of the Caucasus. In Russian slang, Caucasian people and Central Asians fall into the category of black. This is not necessarily associated with skin colour, but rather the color of hair and their non-Slavic facial appearance — since most North Caucasians and Russians have the same skin colour (although South Caucasians mostly have darker skin).^[8] Members of these ethnicities could be depicted as dangerous savages who are a threat to public safety.

Several pogroms, directed particularly against Caucasian merchants and migrants have been reported in the Russian capital, Moscow, and in other Russian cities.^{[citation needed]} There was a pogrom on April 21, 2001 in Yasenevo Market in Moscow against merchants from the Caucasus, and well-organised attacks on Caucasian businesses and migrants in the eastern Russian town Ekaterinburg on September 9, 2004.^{[citation needed]} Racially motivated attacks against Armenians have grown so common that the president of Armenia, Robert Kocharyan, raised the issue with high-ranking Russian officials.^[9]^[10]^[11]^[12] In August 2007 a video of 2 alleged neo-Nazis beheading two Muslim men, one from Dagestan in the Caucasus and one from Tajikistan appeared on the internet.^[13] In February 2004, a nine-year old Tajik girl was stabbed to death in Saint Petersburg by suspected far-right skinheads.^[14]^[15] The attack came a week after 39 people died in Moscow when a suspected suicide bomber detonated a bomb on an underground train.

[edit] Antisemitism

In March 2008, allegations of blood libel appeared in posters in Novosibirsk.^[16] The Federation of Jewish Communities of Russia expressed their concern about a rising number of attacks targeting Jews, calling it part of "a recent surge in anti-Semitic manifestations" in Russia.^[17]

Please help improve this section by expanding it.
Further information might be found on the talk page or at requests for expansion.

[edit] Hostility towards Chinese

Russian attitudes towards the People's Republic of China have focused on the fear of Russia (especially the Russian Far East and Siberia) being overwhelmed by Chinese, because of China's much larger population.^[18] It is also noted that there is illegal immigration coming from China into Southeastern Russia, especially after the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991.^[19]

[edit] Hostility towards Africans

Many black students feel unsafe in Russia. In Saint Petersburg, three Africans have been killed in suspected race attacks since September 2005. "Monkey" insults and non-lethal assaults are so frequent that students have ceased reporting them^[20]^[21].

Negative attitude towards Africans traces back to the days of the Soviet Union, in spite of its internationalist propaganda and its "fight for peace in the whole world" (a Russian political cliché, based on a wordplay, both "peace" and "world" translating as "mir" in Russian). As a part of its support of decolonisation in Africa, the Soviet Union offered free education for citizens of African states. African students (as well as other foreign students) were placed in many higher education institutions throughout the country, most famously at Peoples' Friendship University of Russia, then known as the Patrice Lumumba Peoples' Friendship University, after the Congolese revolutionary and prime minister Patrice Lumumba.

[edit] Violence against anti-fascists

On June 19, 2004, Nikolai Girenko, a prominent ethnographer and anthropologist, was shot to death in his St. Petersburg apartment. Girenko was a key adviser in 15 ethnic hate crime trials.^[22] On November 13, 2005 Timur Kacharava, a fourth year philosophy student at St. Petersburg State University, was stabbed to death by a group of teenagers. Kacharava had been known for confronting neo-Nazis in the streets.^[23] The main defendant in the trial that followed almost two years later was 14 years old.^[24]