Minorities Under Siege: Hate Crimes and Intolerance in the Russian Federation

I. Introduction

A wave of attacks on Russia's minorities and anti-racism activists, including dozens of murders, has increasingly brought the hate crimes issue into the public spotlight. In April 2006 alone at least nine people were victims of racist murders. One nine-year-old girl suffered multiple stab wounds but survived.[1]

In Russia's "northern capital" of St. Petersburg demonstrators took to the streets in April 2006 to express their dismay and to demand a more vigorous government response following the murder of an African student – the latest in a string of bias-motivated attacks there. Likewise, verdicts in several high-profile court cases also resonated with some sectors of the Russian public. A jury on March 22, 2006 acquitted of murder the principal suspect in the killing of nine-year old Khursheda Sultonova, who was attacked because she was an ethnic Tajik; he and others charged were convicted instead of "hooliganism." On March 27, 2006, a judge found Alexander Kopstev guilty of attempted murder "with a motive of national, racial, religious hatred" for having attacked and stabbed members of the congregation in a Moscow synagogue on January 11, 2006, and sentenced him to a 13-year prison term.

The conflict in Chechnya has served to create a climate of hostility toward people of Caucasian origin living in many parts of Russia as well as those seeking to defend the rights of Chechens. Although the level of attacks against people from the Caucasus appears to have subsided from that witnessed in the immediate aftermath of the September 2004 hostage crisis and killings of schoolchildren in Beslan, the continued instability in the northern Caucasus, and the continuing threat of terrorism in northern cities like Moscow, still contributes to discriminatory violence against people from that region.

People from the Caucasus, as well as other minorities and immigrants, are targeted for both their ethnicity or national origin and their religion. Amidst a backdrop of xenophobic and racist rhetoric from political parties, regional leaders, and the media, skinhead and other extremist groups have carried out vicious attacks against Russia's minorities and foreign visitors, often with impunity. Synagogues, mosques, and Protestant churches have been damaged by arsonists and vandals, and Jewish, Muslim, and Armenian cemeteries have been desecrated.

In the first few months of 2006, dozens of attacks were carried out against a wide range of Russian nationals and immigrants, with people from the Caucasus and Central Asia, Roma, Jews, gays and lesbians, and foreign students from around the world killed or injured. Foreign diplomats, journalists, and tourists have also been victims of racist attacks. African students are among the "visible" minorities most under siege, but others distinguished by their skin color, their place of worship, their language, or their cultural practices are similarly under constant threat. Members of Russia's Central Asian minorities and nationals of Asian countries have also been increasingly targets of violence.

The official government response has been weak and ineffectual. Criminal justice officials have prosecuted the perpetrators of hate crimes in only a small minority of cases, often for hooliganism rather than as hate crimes under provisions in Russia's Criminal Code that establish these as more serious crimes requiring enhanced penalties.

At the same time, nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) – especially those that speak out against human rights abuses and seek to protect the rights of Russia's minorities – are under increased scrutiny under new legislation regulating and restricting the activities of civil society associations. Charges under laws intended to combat anti-extremist activities have been brought to silence human rights and other organizations critical of the authorities and to further weaken the nongovernmental sector.     

Internationally, Russia's deteriorating human rights record – including the government's crackdown on NGOs and its seeming inability to stem the tide of discriminatory violence – has been in the spotlight in connection with Russia's current presidency of the Group of Eight nations and its hosting the G-8 Summit in St. Petersburg in July 2006. While few have called for a boycott of the meeting on human rights grounds, a range of domestic and international critics of the Putin government have called for a re-evaluation of Russia's membership in the G-8 due to its slide into increasing authoritarianism.[2]