RUSSIA: Racist attacks are on the rise in economically booming Russia, human rights groups say authorities are tardy with the measures to stop them

Record ID: 352241

  • Title: RUSSIA: Racist attacks are on the rise in economically booming Russia, human rights groups say authorities are tardy with the measures to stop them
  • Date: 22nd July 2008
  • Summary: (CEEF) MOSCOW, RUSSIA (FILE - NOVEMBER, 2007) (REUTERS) VARIOUS OF NATIONALISTS MARCHING AND SHOUTING "RUSSIA FOR RUSSIANS" AND "THIS IS OUR CITY , THIS IS OUR COUNTRY" DURING RUSSIA'S NATIONAL DAY OF UNITY ON THE FOURTH OF NOVEMBER
  • Embargoed: 6th August 2008 13:00
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  • Reuters ID: LVA6OCEMBD0KRVTQYWMEA9F41VYJ
  • Story Text: Racist attacks have been on the rise in recent years in economically booming Russia, which attracts cheap labour from the post-Soviet countries.
    Human rights groups say authorities have not done enough to stop the trend.
    The energy rich Russian economy has been growing for the past seven years, making the country an attractive destination for vast numbers of unemployed or poorly paid people from the Caucasus region, Central Asian Republics as well as other Asian countries.
    A Russian human rights group says that immigrants are now being targeted in a rising number of racist attacks, which they say the authorities are not doing enough to crack down on.
    Many job-hunters migrate into the country illegally, happy to work for lower wages in order to send money home.
    Last year the government of the then President Vladimir Putin launched a crackdown on illegal migrant workers, and the companies that hire them.
    Russian police have stepped up raids on large outdoor markets and construction sites, which are easy places of employment for immigrants.
    The government said that it wanted to bring order to the migration process. Critics, however, said that the new policy reflected a dangerous xenophobic trend, which had a strong foundation in Russia's history and could lead to a rise in racist attacks on people with non-Slavic looks and complexion.
    Galina Kozhevnikova, a representative of Russian rights group "Sova" said that a neo-nazi infrastructure has been already set up in the country, and it would be very difficult to fight it.

    "It has become trendy to be a racist murderer, because a neonazi infrastructure has already been organised here, which provides its members with a comfortable existence in the criminal world, in prisons, in preliminary detention centres. It supports the families of their members, allocates money to their families, and finds lawyers for them, provides them with all kinds of support," she said.
    Authorities haev started to take on ultranationalist groups in Russia, and a number of recent cases have the seen the attacks get prosecuted -- a novelty in Russia.
    But Kozhevnikova says it is a case of too little too late.
    She also said that a recent trial of a gang of young men aged between 17 and 22 who were charged with the murders of more than 20 victims from the post Soviet republics had set a new, and even more dangerous trend for "racist heroes.

    "Teenagers see this "hero" (the murderer), and they see how his comfortable existence is provided and maintained, they understand that it is more profitable for them to commit as many murders as possible, to become another hero. Because now they understand that they will be caught, they understand that now they will be arrested, so they have to secure a comfortable existence," Kozhevnikova said.
    The gangs usually film the attacks and make the footage accessible on their internet sites.
    Last year a video surfaced showing the killing of two men from the Caucuses, who were beheaded. Russian officials did not investigate immediately, claiming the video was fake, but the family member of one of the victims recognised his missing brother who left Dagestan for Russia on a job-hunt.
    Rights groups say the problem is being made worse by a generation of young people being brought up with military patriotic ideals.

    "There are many military and sport camps, all of them, practically all of them, are controlled by ultra-rights. Practically all of them function under the patronage of some administrations, not because the administrations are xenophobic, but because it is in fashion now to bring up patriots, and mainly military sort of patriots. And already at the moment we have a very well trained army of boeviks (fighters) which can easily handle explosives, firearms and even mortars."
    Kozhevnikova said that the Russian Prosecutors office, especially in Moscow, has been working much more effectively in recent months, but she added that it would take several if not tens of years before the murder rate decline.

    "On one hand we see a decrease in the number of victims injured this year, but on the other hand there is a sharp increase in the number of murders. Just for comparison I can tell you that 83 people were killed in nationalist crimes last year (2007), and in the first five months of this year (2008) 59 people have been killed. And this is an indication that we just have no information about other hate crime victims (wounded or injured)," she said.
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