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

V. Hate Crimes and the Public

Hate Crime Victims

Those who are vulnerable to hate crimes include both foreigners and Russian nationals with a "non-Slavic" appearance. Non-Slavic people from the Russian Federation's republics in the Caucasus who are Russian citizens are as much targets of racist violence as are recent immigrants from the now independent republics of the former Soviet Union.

Particularly high levels of racist violence are directed toward people from the Caucasus, in part in response to the war in Chechnya and associated terrorist attacks in Russian towns and cities. Attacks on the Jewish community build on deeply rooted antisemitism that has found new voices, while Russia's scattered Roma – sometimes known as gypsies – face violent attacks as part of longstanding patterns of discrimination and social marginalization by both the state and civil society. In addition to "visible" minorities, identified through their skin color, culture, or language, bias crimes target members of religions that are considered "non-traditional," from Jehovah's Witnesses to Baptists, Roman Catholics, and Hare Krishnas. Those whose minority status is due to their sexual orientation also have become targets of bias-based violence. 

In addition to those who are victims of hate crimes because of their identity, victims of hate crimes have included those who are taking action against racism and intolerance. Human rights and anti-racism campaigners, including young people who speak out against racism through music and groups that call themselves anti-Fascist, have engaged in growing protests against extremist violence and are increasingly themselves the victims. These crimes are properly viewed as bias-driven when the victim is targeted because he or she is a member of an advocacy group supporting the rights of a minority group, even if the victim is not a member of the targeted racial, religious, sexual-orientation, or other similar group. The perpetrators of such crimes identify these people with the minorities who are the object of their hatred.

People of the Caucasus and Central Asia

People from the Caucasus and Central Asia – both Russian citizens and foreigners – are possibly the group suffering the highest number of racist attacks. At the same time, reporting of attacks on migrants from these areas and others who have not established Russian nationality probably remains the least comprehensive, as these victims also tend to fear police abuse or arrest and are least likely to report racist attacks. The attacks come in an environment in which discrimination against non-Slavic Russian citizens is openly advocated.

Members of these ethnic minorities who are Russian citizens are in practice often treated as illegal aliens in their own land. The use of residence permits to regulate internal movement within the Russian Federation, a heritage of the Soviet propiska (registration) system, has nominally been outlawed, but continues to be employed to bar free movement to Russia's minority citizens. Although everyone is free to choose their place of residence, all persons living in Russia are required to register with the local police. As ECRI reports in its Third Report on the Russian Federation, police have been known to hinder ethnic minorities in obtaining such registration, without which a wide range of public services – such as insurance, health protection and medical aid – have in practice been denied.[41]   

Meanwhile, nationalist leaders and regional political officials have frequently espoused ethnic-Russian supremacist views, calling for non-Slavic Russian citizens as well as immigrants to be excluded from Russian cities. These political party leaders and public officials have frequently carried xenophobic and racist sentiments to mainstream audiences. For example, the governor of the Krasnodar region, Alexander Tkachev, has regularly made statements to the press such as claims that "tight-knit ethnic groups are taking over local markets, getting young people hooked on drugs and luring them into crime" and that human rights groups "defend the rights of everything and everyone, except for the right of Russian people to be the masters of their own land."[42] Even more extreme was his 2002 statement as reported by Moscow News: "Think about it: there are more than a million Armenians in our region… As well as Meskhet-Turks, Kurds, Roma, Tajiks, Yezidi, Georgians… They will all take over soon. We'll increase the fine for the absence of a residence permit to 6,000 rubles. We are going to watch who befriends whom and how their last names end. Last names ending in "yan," "dze," "shvili," or "ogli" are illegal, just as are those who bear those names."[43]

Vladimir Zhironovsky, the head of the Liberal Democratic Party (LDPR), has developed an international reputation for his ethnic Russian chauvinism and has made repeated antisemitic and racist statements over his long political career. His party has used various anti-immigrant and racist slogans in its campaigns, most recently in the fall 2005 campaign for the Moscow Duma, where one LDPR campaign sticker declared "Close Moscow off to immigrants from the south. We are for a city with a Russian face. Illegals have no place in the capital!"[44]

The LDPR was not the only party, however, to use the "ethnic card" as a campaign tool in those elections. The right-wing party Rodina (Motherland), the most popular in Moscow after the pro-Putin Yedinaya Rossiya (United Russia), broadcast a television campaign advertisement in October 2005 showing dark-skinned men from the Caucasus insulting a passing Slavic woman with a baby by throwing watermelon rinds on the ground. The accompanying slogan to "clear the city of garbage" left little doubt that the "dark-skinned" minorities living in Moscow are the "garbage" in question. Ironically, it was the LDPR that filed an incitement complaint over the television spot with a Moscow court. The result was the first instance in which a party was barred from an election for "inciting ethnic hatred," although political commentators observed that other parties with comparable campaigns were not similarly challenged.

People of Chechen origin or from elsewhere in the Caucasus are under particular threat of violence. Attacks motivated by racism sometimes have an overlay of religious hatred and intolerance: most people from the Caucasus are Muslims or of non-Orthodox Christian faiths. Sometimes the overlay of prejudice founded on race or national origin and religion is expressed through attacks on symbols of faith, including attacks on mosques.

A Muslim place of worship was attacked in Sergiyev Posad, in Moscow Oblast, on October 14, 2005 and local Muslim leader Arsan Sadriyev was reportedly severely beaten. According to a statement by the Council of Muftis of Russia, "a group of skinheads armed with reinforcement bars and spades broke into a prayer house and assaulted its visitors, shouting ‘Russia for Russians' and ‘There is no place for Muslims in Russia.'" The Interfax press agency quoted local law enforcement officials who said the incident "has no relation to extremism or skinheads," and that the attack was carried out by two drunken men in a simple case of disorderly conduct.[45]

Similar attacks were reported throughout 2005. In August, in an incident reportedly being investigated by police as hooliganism, anti-Muslim slogans were daubed on a mosque in Penza and a window was broken.[46] In September, skinheads in Nizhny Novgorod harrassed local Muslims who had gathered to commemorate the victims of the Beslan terrorist attack on the one-year anniversary of the attack. They chanted "Beat the Muslims, Save Russia!" and "Russia for Russians!" The Tauba mosque in Nizhny Novgorod was painted with swastikas in January.[47] In December, a mosque was burned in Syktyvkar, in northern Russia.[48]

Ethnic Armenians were also targeted. On July 29, 2005 vandals reportedly toppled 29 gravestones in the cemetery of Verkhny Yurt, Krasnodar, most of them marking graves of ethnic Armenians.[49] On November 13, 2005 a Molotov cocktail was reportedly thrown at the Armenian Cultural Center in Pyatigorsk, Sebastopol, which adjoins an Armenian church.[50] Fourteen headstones were desecrated in a December 6, 2005 incident in the Armenian section of a cemetery in Nadezhda.[51]

Market traders from the northern Caucasus and from former Soviet republics have been attacked in northern cities in rampages by large groups of violent assailants that have many of the characteristics of a pogrom. On August 2, 2005, a day on which Russia's Airborne Forces are honored, three incidents were reported in which veterans of these elite forces attacked market traders believed to be from the Caucasus.[52] Also in August, the local branch of the human rights organization Memorial reported two attacks within a single week on men from the Caucasus in an open air market in Syktyvkar.[53]  

People from the Caucasus are seemingly vulnerable to attack at almost any time or place. On September 6, 2005, Liza Umarova, a well-known Chechen singer, and her 14-year-old son Murad, were attacked by four youths and severely beaten while subjected to racist verbal abuse.[54] Other attacks were more lethal. On just one December night in Moscow in December 2005, assailants in separate incidents beat and stabbed to death a man from the southern republic of Kabardino-Balkaria near the Botanichesky Sad metro station; killed a native of Dagestan and injured two others; severely injured a Tajik migrant worker near the Medvedkovo metro station; and stabbed three other men from the Caucasus.[55]

In 2006, the pace of attacks has continued unabated. On February 25, three men armed with knives attacked two women who worked as vendors in a St. Petersburg street market, both of them citizens of Kyrgystan. Ainur Bulekbayeva, an ethnic Kazakh, was killed, and Ilfuza Babayeva, an ethnic Azeri, was hospitalized with an estimated 20 stab wounds. Police said nothing was stolen from the two women, and that the attacks were being investigated as possible crimes of hooliganism.[56] On April 22, 2006, in Moscow, assailants attacked two 25-year old ethnic Tajiks and stabbed them multiple times. The attackers then fled. A passerby picked up the wounded men and drove them to the hospital. One of the men died en route from the 17 knife wounds he sustained, the second was treated at the hospital and survived.[57]

Those attacked and severely injured or killed increasingly include children and young people. A Sunday Times (London) investigation into a neo-Nazi training camp outside of Moscow quoted an unemployed engineer at the camp as declaring that "We need to kill all dark-skinned immigrants … We shouldn't just kill adults. We must get rid of their children too. When you squash cockroaches to death, you don't just kill the big ones. You go for the little ones too."[58]

On January 7, 2006 in Moscow, 13-year old Evgeny Bagdasaryan, an ethnic Armenian from Uzbekistan, was attacked and killed. His body was found by his neighbors near the entrance of his apartment building. He had been stabbed 34 times. Relatives believe he may have been killed by local skinheads, who have been known to threaten people in the neighborhood.[59] At the beginning of April 2006 in the city of Surgut in the Tumen region, skinheads beat up 15-year old Kairat Murzagaliev, who was originally from Kazakhstan. Eight youths shouting nationalist slogans attacked him while he was on his way to buy bread, throwing him to the ground and kicking him.[60]

People of African Origin

People of African origin have been the object of some of the most persistent and serious attacks, with African students in particular subject to everyday threats of violence. Although there are a relatively small number of people of African origin in Russia, they are among the most visible and thus most vulnerable of minorities. While there are many people of African origin, including Russian nationals, permanently living in various parts of Russia, many others are students who plan to leave the country after receiving their diplomas. Human Rights First interviews and reports in the Russian and foreign press have revealed that African students increasingly live in fear in Russia's cities and must take extensive precautions to ensure their own safety. Russian authorities have shown little commitment to act to protect these foreign students.

One of the most widely reported cases of racist violence in 2006 was the murder of an African student in St. Petersburg. The attack followed soon after a nine-year old child of Russian-African descent was attacked and severely wounded by knife-wielding assailants.

On April 7 in St. Petersburg, Lampsar Samba, a student from Senegal, was shot with a hunting rifle as he left a night club with a group of other African students. The weapon, emblazoned with a swastika, was found near the scene of the crime.[61] Just a few weeks before, on March 25, also in St. Petersburg, nine-year old Lilian Sisoko, a Russian citizen of mixed heritage (the daughter of an ethnic Russian woman and a Malian man), was stabbed in the neck and ear three times by two young men as she was entering her apartment building. She managed to get back to her apartment, where her parents called for an ambulance in which she was rushed to the hospital.[62] The authorities hesitated in qualifying this crime as racially motivated, although in the case of the student from Senegal, the racist element was immediately acknowledged.

People of "Asian Appearance"

The victims of hate crimes often appear to be chosen on the basis of ethnicity: anyone who does not appear Slavic can fall victim. In addition to attacks on people from Russia's national minorities, numerous attacks have been committed against people of Chinese, Arab, and Indian origin.

In July 2005, a group of skinheads shouting "Russia for Russians" attacked a Vietnamese man in a Moscow park and beat him to death.[63] In September 2005, in Samara, two men of "Asian appearance" were reportedly attacked by two drunken security guards and beaten unconscious; they were then doused with a flammable liquid and set on fire in what a local Tatar activist described as a hate crime. The two men were hospitalized in critical condition and the alleged perpetrators were detained.[64] Later that same month, a Japanese diplomat and his wife were assaulted while waiting for a Moscow trolleybus.[65] Also in September, 2005, two Chinese students were injured with a baseball bat in an assault by four assailants in Voronezh.[66] In October 2005, a group of Thai students were attacked in Yekaterinburg, with one student injured.[67]

Antisemitism

Jews in Russia are victims of especially pernicious discrimination and violence that draws upon a public mindset rooted in centuries of antisemitism. Antisemitic views are an ever-present feature of the public statements of a wide range of public figures, nationalist political parties, and extremist groups and can also be found in the mainstream media. Antisemitic literature is widely available and sold without hindrance in Russia's kiosks and bookstores.

The most widely reported recent manifestation of antisemitism involving public officials – members of the Russian Duma – was known as the "Letter of 500."

On January 14, 2005, the website of the newspaper Orthodox Rus published an open letter signed by over 500 people (which has subsequently increased to over 15,000 people), originally including 19 Members of the Russian State Duma. The seven-page letter restated many of the most ancient and venomous of antisemitic slanders, including the "blood libel" – the claim that Jews practice ritual murder. The document, issued on Duma stationary on the occasion of the 60th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz, denounced Judaism as "anti-Christian and inhumane, whose practices extend to ritual murders," and called on Russia's prosecutor general to "open a legal investigation into banning all Jewish religious and community groups" on the grounds of "defense of the homeland." It also accused Jews of staging attacks against their own community. A Russian Foreign Ministry press notice, issued as President Putin was preparing to attend the Auschwitz memorial ceremony, declared simply that "the statement has nothing to do with the official position of the Russian leadership."[68]

The "Letter of 500" has continued to circulate widely and gain supporters. Government officials did, in fact, respond to the letter's demand that the public prosecutor's office initiate an inquiry into Judaism in Russia, although the investigation conducted was quickly concluded.

An initiative similar to the January 2005 letter followed in June 2005, when the Russian press reported a request having been made of a Moscow court by a "group of nationalists" to investigate Jewish leaders, claiming that a traditional text on Jewish law "incites hatred." Rabbi Berl Lazar was quoted as having confirmed that he had in fact met with the office of the prosecutor to discuss the Shulchan Arukh, the 16th century code of Jewish law, and that the prosecutor had "withdrawn its order to investigate the text." On June 23, 2005 officials of the prosecutor's office had reportedly questioned Rabbi Zinovy Kogan, chairman of the Congress of Jewish Organizations, about the text.[69] A spokesman for Russia's Federation of Jewish Organizations said the call for an investigation by prosecutors "into whether an ancient Jewish religious text was inciting religious hatred ‘was a sign of a serious illness of our society."[70]

Antisemitic slogans and rhetoric in public demonstrations are frequently reported, attributed to both nationalist and Communist parties and political groups. In a February 23, 2006 rally celebrating "Defenders of the Fatherland Day," a yearly tribute to war veterans, according to the newspaper Kommersant, marchers flourished signs with messages including "Kikes! Stop drinking Russian blood!," "White Power!," and "A Russian government for Russia!"[71]

Antisemitism in the Russian Federation has frequently gone beyond offensive speech and incitement to be manifested through violent attacks against Jews, Jewish institutions and property, as well as in the desecration of cemeteries and synagogues. The SOVA Center documented 27 incidents of antisemitic attacks on people and on property in 2005.[72]

 In January 2005, a group of some seven teenagers attacked Rabbi Alexander Lakshin, an American citizen, in a pedestrian underpass shortly after he left a Jewish community center in the Marina Roscha district of Moscow. He suffered serious injuries from the attack.[73] Two hours before, a Jewish couple had been attacked in the same area, near a major synagogue.[74] The case of the January 2006 Moscow synagogue stabbing, mentioned above in more detail, generated wide domestic and international dismay.

In June 2005, a synagogue in Vladimir was daubed with swastikas and antisemitic slogans.[75] In September, stones were thrown through the windows of Nizhny Novogorod's historic synagogue in the central city, the latest of repeated attacks.[76] On May 10, 2005, a synagogue in the village of Malakhovka, near Moscow, was burned to the ground in what was described as an arson attack.[77]

Cemetery desecrations were widely reported. On May 26, 2005 gravestones in a Jewish cemetery in Kazan were vandalized; four gravestones were daubed with swastikas in Nizhny Novgorod; while 15 markers were damaged in the Vostryakovskoe Jewish cemetery in a Moscow suburb.[78] In July 2005, ten Jewish gravestones were reportedly smashed in Smolensk on the day locally commemorated as the date of the Nazi establishment of a ghetto there. On August 6, 2005 an estimated 50 gravestones in the Jewish section of the Dmitrovo-Cherkassakh cemetery in Tver were painted with swastikas and others were smashed. Antisemitic leaflets were found at the scene.[79] Two gravestones were toppled on August 29, 2005, and one painted with a swastika in the Jewish cemetery of Tambov; a third was overturned two nights later.[80] In October 2005, a Jewish cemetery in St. Petersburg was vandalized twice over two weeks, with 60 gravestones damaged.[81] On April 21, 2006 ten gravestones in a Jewish cemetery were desecrated with graffiti in the form of swastikas.[82]

Jewish civic centers, shops, and restaurants have also been attacked. On the night of June 30, 2005, two attackers wearing gas masks attacked a kosher food store in Moscow's Marina Roshcha district, releasing an unknown gas and smashing goods and display cases while shouting antisemitic slogans.[83] The windows of a kosher restaurant called "Shalom" in St. Petersburg were smashed and its door damaged in September 2005, the second such attack reported in an apparent hate crime.[84]

In March 2005, a Jewish community center in Syktyvkar, Republic of Komi, in northern Russia, was vandalized, with swastikas and "Death to the Kikes" painted on its door and walls.[85] In July 2005, the Jewish community center in Taganrog, near Rostov was vandalized after a series of telephone threats, its windows reportedly smashed by two youth who were not detained.[86] In Vladimir, Chesed Ozer Center was repeatedly vandalized; in August, 2005, its fence was daubed with a swastika and the slogan "Go home to the ghetto." Police were called but reportedly refused to record the incident, the third of its kind within a matter of months.[87] In February 2006 in Saratov, antisemitic graffiti and swastikas were painted on the walls of a building near the offices of two local Jewish organizations.[88]   

Police action has reportedly stopped some planned antisemitic attacks and successful prosecutions were reported for serious attacks, such as the January 2006 synagogue knife attack in Moscow. In March 2006, a court in Tomsk reportedly handed down long prison sentences against three men charged with two murders, planting a bomb attached to an antisemitic road sign, attempting to poison patrons of a Jewish-owned restaurant, and an abortive bombing of a synagogue in Tomsk.[89] A baker, Viktor Lukyanchikov, was sentenced to 23 years' imprisonment on a range of charges, including murder, arson, and incitement of racial hatred. An employee was sentenced to 20 years' imprisonment. In July 2005, press reports had cited official sources tying the Tomsk incidents to the neo-Nazi group Russian National Unity (RNU), and to a series of exploding signs with antisemitic slogans in the Moscow area that had caused serious injuries when passersby attempted to take them down in 2002. Lukyanchikov was accused of having "ordered the planting of a booby-trapped "Death to the Kikes!" sign on a local road which exploded and injured two men who tried to pull it down."[90]

"Non-Traditional" Religions

The four faiths that are formally designated traditional religions in Russia are the Russian Orthodox Church, Buddhism, Islam, and Judaism. Members of others that are considered "non-traditional" religions often face difficulties in leasing premises, obtaining permits to build places of worship, or registering or re-registering under the 1997 law on "Freedom of Conscience." The Jehovah's Witness faith has been banned by a Moscow court since June 2004 and faces difficulties throughout the country in acquiring premises for worship.

Vandalism and physical attacks on members of non-Orthodox faiths and churches have occurred in the context of campaigns of vilification of these faiths, in leaflets and through the media, sometimes by those purporting to speak in defense of the majority Russian Orthodox Church. Extreme nationalist political groups and parties that advocate "Russia for Russians" and attack non-Orthodox believers also frequently claim to advance the cause of the highly visible Church. Disruption by state agents of public assemblies by members of some religions, and short-term arrests, have further contributed to a climate of hostility toward non-Orthodox Christian faiths, adding an official gloss to religious intolerance.

A Baptist church in Chelyabinsk was firebombed on April 30, 2005, and although the fire was extinguished, echoed the January 2004 bombing of a Baptist church in Tula Oblast and the September 2004 destruction by fire of a Baptist church in Lyubuchany, in the Moscow region.[91] According to members of the Chelyabinsk congregation, the attack followed a television broadcast of a press conference about "totalitarian sects" which had shown footage of the Baptist church and congregation.[92] The press conference was reportedly held by Ekaterina Gorina, the head of the human rights commission of the governor of Chelyabinsk, who had previously been known for efforts to ban worship by Jehovah's Witness congregations in the region, including by leading a police raid on a Jehovah's Witness service for the deaf in April 2000.[93]

Adventist churches were also targeted. A church in Taganrog, near Rostov, was damaged by a fire police said was arson on April 28, 2005. The pastor said that attackers had systematically broken every window in the church a few days before and that police had then described this as "hooliganism."[94] A window was also broken in an Adventist church in Arkhangelsk in early May, reportedly by local youth.[95]

Demonstrations called to protest the presence of so-called "non-traditional" faiths and institutions are frequently the settings for inflammatory statements and leaflets that provide the context for violence. In June 2005, members of the Rodina (Motherland) Party demonstrated in Moscow to oppose the construction of premises for the Russian-American Christian Institute, declaring it to be "a sower of ideas that are alien to our state." Leaflets combined anti-Protestant rhetoric with antisemitism. Some called upon "fellow citizens and patriots" to stop the "American Protestant heresy," while others declared: "God is not in strength but in truth! Live without fear of the Jews!"[96] In May, a similar demonstration was organized by the Orthodox Citizens Union, whose spokesman was quoted as declaring that "this Baptist educational institution is completely out of place in an area where the majority of the population is Orthodox," (The institute is an inter-faith institution with Protestant, Catholic, and Russian Orthodox faculty and students.)[97]

Some actions taken in response to public events held by members of Protestant churches have included violent assaults. On August 10, 2005, members of the Emmanuel Pentecostal Church gathered in Moscow's Pushkin Square were attacked by youths dressed in black, some of them shouting "Burn the heretics." The church members had gathered to protest city obstruction of the purchase of land occupied by two prayer houses. Police had violently broken up a previous demonstration, arresting several church members, but were absent at the time of the attack.[98]

Roma

Roma have long been the objects of discrimination, deep-seated prejudice, and racist violence in Russia. Roma today are subjected to both individual attacks as well as to pogroms in which groups of people attack Roma communities.

In the Siberian town of Iskitim, attackers have on multiple occasions attacked and burned houses of members of the Roma community. In one attack in November 2005, an eight-year old Roma girl died in the fire when her house was set alight. According to Boris Krendel, a local human rights activist who has sought a government response on behalf of the Roma victims, the district prosecutor subsequently announced on local Novosibirsk television that the perpetrators had been detained, but that they would not be punished because the residents of Iskitim were concerned by the rise of drug trafficking and would like the Roma to leave. [99] Krendel claims to have been threatened on numerous occasions for his work with Roma as having "helped drug traffickers." On April 13, 2006, a group of youths attacked a group of Roma near their place of dwelling in the city of Volzhsky in the Volgograd region. The attackers killed two persons and seriously injured two others. Several people have been detained in connection with the attack and charges of murder with a racial motive have been initiated.[100]

A negative public perception of Roma has been reinforced by the media and by the public statements of political leaders in recent years. In some cases, regional political leaders have smeared Roma in general as criminals and traffickers in drugs and have set the scene for anti-Roma violence. Statements by the mayor of the northern city of Arkhangelsk, Alexander Donskoi, for example, seem designed to encourage anti-Roma fear and ethnic chauvinism. Donskoi has been particularly virulent in his characterization of the small Roma community living in the outskirts of the city. In the last mayoral campaign, Donskoi campaigned on a platform of forcing the Roma from Arkhanglesk and has worked since becoming mayor to fulfill that particular promise, using the lower courts to declare their housing community illegal and, when that was blocked by a higher court, reportedly collecting money from local businessman to pay them to leave.[101]

"Alternative Youth" and Anti-Racist Activists

Increasingly, young people associated with foreign cultures and multiculturalism, sometimes referred to as "alternative youth," are becoming the victims of serious attacks. On February 5, 2006, on the birthday of Jamaican reggae musician Bob Marley, skinheads reportedly attacked a group of reggae musicians on their way to a concert in Moscow. At least six of them sustained injuries. The police detained eight persons from among the group of over 30 attackers, but released them before the victims could make it to the police station to identify them. Without examining the medical evidence of the victims' injuries, the police allegedly made the decision that there were no grounds for opening an investigation.[102] A year before, reggae fans in Moscow were attacked and two seriously injured on February 5 by more than 30 skinheads shouting "White Power." Neo-Nazi groups have declared rap and reggae music "racially inferior."[103]

Attacks have been reported both at concerts and on public transportation. A group of up to 20 skinheads attacked members of three punk rock bands on April 3, 2005, who were returning from a concert on a Moscow commuter train. Reportedly shouting "Sieg Heil," the assailants struck with clubs, metal pipes, and bottles, beating the musicians and destroying their musical instruments. Several musicians were seriously injured.[104] Police in Kirov, in contrast, had on April 2, 2005, halted an attack on a rock concert there by a group of some 70 skinheads shouting neo-Nazi slogans who were armed with "clubs, chains, and wooden planks with nails.[105] Similar attacks are reported in many parts of the country, with a recent incident in Syktyvkar in which fans were attacked as they left a rap music venue, with two injured.[106]

Young people involved in human rights, anti-racist, or anti-Fascist campaigning have also increasingly been the victims of attacks. On April 16, 2005, a group of some 12 assailants attacked two members of the Youth Human Rights Movement, Sergey Fedulov and Aleksandr Vyalykh, in Voronezh.[107] The murder in November 2005 of the musician and anti-racist/anti-Fascist activist Timur Karachava in St. Petersburg (described in more detail above) received wide media coverage.

Similar attacks followed that deadly assault. On March 19, 2006 in the city of Tumen, young people involved in feeding the homeless as part of a "Food not Bombs" program were the victims of what was described as a well-coordinated attack. Two young volunteers in the work, as well as two journalists, were injured in the attack.[108] On March 27, 2006, an activist of a human rights organization in the city of Orel was attacked while hanging posters for a "Stop Racism" demonstration.[109] More recently in Moscow on April 16, 2006, Alexander Ryukhin, a young punk rocker and anti-Fascist activist, was murdered, allegedly by skinheads.[110]

Sexual Minorities

Anecdotal evidence suggests that gays and lesbians are also increasingly the victims of bias-motivated attacks. A wave of aggressive rhetoric against Russian gays and lesbians in early 2006 was the response to attempts by gay-rights groups to organize a first-ever gay pride march in Moscow. In late February 2006, several months before the proposed date of the parade, Sergei Tsoy, the Moscow mayor's spokesperson, said that "the Moscow government is not even going to consider allowing a gay parade," claiming that the proposed event has "evoked outrage in society, in particular among religious leaders." Tsoy added that the mayor "was firm that the city government will not allow a gay parade in any form, open or disguised, and any attempts to organize an unsanctioned action will be resolutely quashed."[111] Some religious leaders also publicly expressed vehement disapproval of the proposed parade.

Recent anti-gay rhetoric has also turned to violence. In the late evening of April 30, 2006, about 200 people, among them skinheads as well as Russian Orthodox believers holding icons and crucifixes, protested outside a Moscow gay club –one of several venues planned for a major gay and lesbian celebration –shouting homophobic epithets and patriotic and religious slogans such as "Russia without faggots," "Glory to Russia," and "Christ has risen." Some of the protesters blocked the doors of the club and threw eggs, bottles and rocks at the entrance area. Injuries to club-goers and club personnel were reported. Also on that same night, an art gallery which rented its space to a club patronized by lesbians was seriously damaged after windows were broken and the building set on fire, allegedly by skinheads. The following day, on May 1, another group of several hundred people aggressively protested outside the entrance to another Moscow gay club.[112]

As noted above, the gay pride parade originally planned for May 27 to commemorate the 13-year anniversary of the decriminalization of homosexuality was not sanctioned by Moscow Mayor Yuri Luzhkov amidst pressure and threats of retaliation from extremist groups and from some religious leaders. Luzhkov commented that his decision to ban the parade could serve as an example to foreign countries and that "the West has something to learn from us and should not race along in [allowing] mad licentiousness."[113]  

Two other gay pride actions did go ahead – a flower laying ceremony at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in Alexander Gardens followed by a rally outside the Moscow Mayor's office. In both events, participants were grossly outnumbered by skinheads, extreme nationalists and Russian Orthodox believers who chanted homophobic slogans, such as "Moscow is not Sodom" and "No faggots in Moscow." Police did little to protect the gay and lesbian activists taking part in these events and several people, including Volker Beck, a German Member of Parliament, were attacked and injured.[114]

Even after the gay pride actions, skinheads conducted what was described as a "hunt" throughout the city for people thought to be sexual minorities. Over the course of two days – May 27-28 – the LINA Agency of Legal Information reported that some 50 gay men, lesbians, and activists were attacked and beaten by small groups of skinheads, who in many cases shouted homophobic epithets in the course of the attacks. Some of the victims needed to be hospitalized with serious injuries; many refused to report the attacks to the police for fear of further abuse.[115]

The Perpetrators

Russian human rights organizations and public officials have identified a loosely associated movement – often referred to generally as "skinheads" – as a major force behind hate crimes in Russia. It is difficult to describe the skinhead movement with precision due to its relatively underground nature and apparent lack of coordination, but according to experts, there could be up to 50,000 skinheads in the country.[116] There are no known unifying regional or national structures; rather, most of this movement appears to involve small groups of youths generally centered around a strong leader and a particular place of residence, study, or work.

At the same time, the geographic reach of skinhead activity in Russia seems to be widening. Whereas in the past skinheads were an important factor only in the larger cities, they are now often present in smaller cities and towns, and they also have become increasingly bold in their public presence. A recent eyewitness account told of a group of some 30 skinheads marching in formation through a central Moscow metro station shouting racist slogans.[117] Such accounts are no longer a rarity.

The increasingly bold public presence of skinhead and other extremist groups has made them a familiar sight among the population. In a public opinion poll on youth "organizations" conducted in Volgograd, skinheads were the best-known. Fifty-seven percent of the respondents were aware of skinhead groups – an increase from 43 percent three months before, and far higher than the percentage of those who were aware of other youth groups.[118]

Generally skinheads are not partisans of a particular party – they espouse a hate-driven right-wing ideology, often drawing from German National Socialism, but are not part of a single, organized political entity. There are, however, organized political movements in whose activities skinheads are reportedly involved. Among these is the Movement Against Illegal Immigration, which denigrates minorities through its website and publications, and whose leaders have received airtime in the mainstream national media. Another such extremist organization, the Slavic Union, openly advocates violence. One article from the Slavic Union's website entitled, "We won't allow a Jewish revolution," ends with the words "Glory to Russia! Glory to Victory! Death to Jews, Communists, Liberals!"[119]

Russian media and human rights organizations periodically identify political leaders that provide direct encouragement to the skinhead movement. Press reports in December 2005 said a video circulating among extremist groups featured the former mayor of Vladivostok, Viktor Cherepkov, now an independent member of the Duma, addressing a group of skinheads in which he declares that as a member of the Duma "he spends much of his time ‘defending many of those who are with you,'" and describes skinhead youth as "the real defenders of the Fatherland."[120]

A member of the Duma from the LDPR, Nikolai Kurianovich, is well known for his association with extremist groups and for his public encouragement of skinhead activity, which he described as "useful" in a meeting in October 2005 with the leader of the Slavic Union. A video of that meeting circulated on the Internet.[121] On October 20, 2005, Rabbi Berl Lazar questioned the party's leader, Zhirinovsky, in a public letter, on extremist statements made by Kurianovich. In his response, the LDPR leader defended Kurianovich, explaining that his involvement with skinheads was part of his educational work with youth organizations.[122] 

Some political groups associated with the skinhead movement have been formally banned, but extreme nationalist leaders continue to support racist violence by their supporters. The St. Petersburg Times cited Yury Belyaev, the head of the St. Petersburg Party of Freedom, outlawed in April 2005 for inciting hatred, as admitting "that his ‘young patriots' attack black and Asian people regularly. We have vowed to continue until Russia gets rid of all this rubbish…" Belyaev reportedly added that "we do this partly to punish the Negroes and partly to teach a lesson to the government, which refuses to legalize our organization."[123]

Cossack groups have also been known to be involved in discriminatory violence, especially in southern regions of Russia. In its 2001 Second Report on the Russian Federation, ECRI expressed concern that "in the Southern regions of the Russian Federation (e.g. the Krasnodar and Stravropol Krais, Rostov and Volgagrad Oblasts), many of the acts of violence and harassment against persons belonging to ethnic minorities, are committed by members of organizations referring to themselves as Cossacks, whose members actively participate in law enforcement, both together and separately from the local police forces. These acts are sometimes carried out without hindrance on the part of the authorities."[124] ECRI reiterated this concern in its 2005 Third Report, noting that "racist violence is said to have recently increased in the Russian Federation, not only due to skinheads' activities, but also to the unlawful, brutal conduct of some Cossacks towards visible minorities."[125]

In its 2005 annual report, the SOVA Center highlights some of these same concerns, citing three particular incidents of ethnic violence in which Cossack groups were involved, resulting in dozens of injuries and property damage. In one incident in Novorossiysk, a group of some 200 Cossacks converged on the city, destroyed a café patronized by members of the local Armenian community, and randomly attacked and beat people thought to be of Armenian origin. Police apparently did nothing to stop these violent acts, which were committed in retaliation for a barroom brawl between ethnic-Armenians and Cossacks the previous evening which resulted in the hospitalization of a local Cossack leader.[126]

In light of these incidents, human rights groups have expressed concern that a new "Law on the State Service of Russian Cossacks" was passed in the Russian State Duma and entered into force on December 8, 2005. (Eight previous draft versions had been discussed – and ultimately rejected – over the previous 12 years.) The new law formalizes a role for Cossack units in certain aspects of law enforcement stating that they can "take part in keeping public order, maintaining environmental and fire safety, defending the state borders of the Russian Federation and in fighting terrorism" by concluding necessary agreements with the Federal Security Service and with the regional and local authorities.[127]

The Media and Public Sentiment

The media bears a certain responsibility for the rise of xenophobic sentiment toward Russia's minorities. Although hate speech typically appears in more subtle forms in the mainstream media than in extremist publications, the major media's reach makes it more likely to influence a broader range of the population.

Media monitoring conducted by Russian NGOs has shown that there is, perhaps surprisingly, more hate speech in the national than in the regional media, although it is concentrated in the latter during campaigns waged by individual regional politicians who use the media to stir up public hostility toward particular minority groups.

For example, Roma have been targeted in Arkhangelsk and in other regions, while the Meskhetian Turks have been the target of persistent attacks by political leaders in the Krasnodar media. The mainstream national media has been prone to anti-Islamic and anti-Chechen rhetoric in the context of the conflict in Chechnya and the ongoing fight against terrorism. Not surprisingly, media barrages that attack Chechens as a people and espouse an anti-Muslim message have tended to increase in the wake of new terrorist outrages.[128] 

Xenophobic statements by political leaders and media coverage have an influence on public opinion by exacerbating preexisting fears and prejudices. A recent public opinion poll showed the high level of xenophobic views in Russian society: in December 2005, the independent Levada Analytical Center published the results of an opinion poll to assess people's views of Russian minorities. One of the questions related to the slogan "Russia for Russians." The results were little changed from a similar question asked one year earlier showing that 16 percent of Russians agree totally with this sentiment, 37 percent believe it would be good to implement such a policy with caution, and 23 percent – two percent less than in 2004 – believe this to be a "Fascist notion" to which they relate extremely negatively.[129]

A similar study among law enforcement officers, published in February 2006 by the Public Verdict Foundation, shows a lower level of acceptance of the notion of "Russia for Russians": of those polled, 39 percent were prepared to support the idea (versus 53 percent in the population as a whole), while 51 percent disagreed. The authors of the study commented that "in contrast to the population at large, law enforcement officers are more aware of the negative context of the slogan ‘Russia for Russians…'"[130] Yet, while this study shows that law enforcement officials may be slightly more tolerant than the mainstream, the results are hardly encouraging.

Public Response by Political Leaders and Law Enforcement Officials

Appropriate application of the hate crimes laws now in place, as described above, is a critical means for the Russian government to respond to hate crimes. But this requires strong and persistent political backing at the highest levels. Political leaders must publicly and constantly reinforce the need to react to individual cases with vigor, to take into account elements of bias, and to acknowledge the severity of the problem of hate crimes in their communications with both the law enforcement officials and the public.

Political leaders at the highest level have on occasion spoken out on the issue. In his public address on Red Square on May 9, 2006, President Putin stated that "those who try to raise the rejected banners of Nazism, who spread racial hatred, extremism and xenophobia – are leading the world to a dead end, to senseless bloodshed and cruelty."[131] Putin had spoken out with similar forcefulness during the commemoration of the 60th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz. And in a February 17, 2006 meeting with top Interior Ministry officials, Putin criticized them for "failing to take efficient and systematic efforts" to deal with the surge in racist attacks. According to the official text of his comments, he also acknowledged that "extremist groups have grown increasingly aggressive and bold in their activities" and that "law enforcement structures have underestimated the danger of that."[132]  

Law enforcement officials have indeed underestimated the threat of extremism in the form of racist violence in Russia. At a press conference on January 28, 2005, Moscow's police chief, Vladimir Pronin, denied the existence of any organized skinhead groups in the capital, while suggesting that only non-citizens are attacked. "There is no such organization," said Pronin, adding that "there are just some rabble in Moscow and its suburbs who attack foreign citizens."[133] Such statements come in the midst of frequent attacks by skinheads on minorities in Russia's capital.

In Russia's second city in the frequency of racist violence – St. Petersburg – criminal justice authorities have been equally eager to downplay the threat of extremism. On April 21, 2006, St. Petersburg's chief prosecutor Sergei Zaitsev declared the spate of hate crimes recently witnessed there to be "a provocation" against the city's reputation, rather than a sign of extremism. He stated that there are only two extremist groups in St. Petersburg – Schultz-88 and Mad Crowd – members of which had been sentenced in December 2005 to short prison terms. He called on journalists to cover crimes against foreigners in a more correct manner so as not to encourage "the desire among certain people to stigmatize our city."[134]

St. Petersburg's Governor Valentina Matvienko herself played down the problem of racist violence in the city, suggesting that the press had unfairly blown things out of proportion. "Over the past few years there has been an attempt to stamp St. Petersburg as the capital of xenophobia," she said, "and, unfortunately, many media outlets have fallen for this provocation…"[135] The governor appeared to dismiss the continuing threat offered by the thousands – by some estimates – of St. Petersburg residents who identify themselves with skinhead culture and racist ideology.[136] Referring to the May arrest of five neo-Nazi group members, she stated that "I believe that this is the last gang involved in such activities," adding that "of course, one can't rule out that they have their followers." "There are all kinds of youth groups in the city," she conceded, "but they are not dangerous. One just has to work with them"[137]

On the whole, there is a widespread feeling among civil society representatives that political leaders have not spoken out with sufficient regularity. Nor have political leaders presented a comprehensive plan to address the growing problem of discriminatory violence. In its Third Report on the Russian Federation, released in April 2006, ECRI noted that "NGOs and experts have strongly criticized the position adopted by the Russian authorities until very recently in respect of the current increase of racism and intolerance in the Russian Federation. In general, they consider that up until now the authorities have turned a blind eye to the problem and have not taken any measures to prevent or combat this growing phenomenon."[138]

This sentiment was reiterated at a May 14, 2006 conference of civil society leaders on "Fascism – a Threat to the Future of Russia." In a final conference program of action, the conference participants urged the Russian government "to admit, on the level of the government's leadership, the seriousness of the problem of neo-Nazism, xenophobia and racial discrimination … Russian society needs clear and concrete statements from government representatives at all levels against racism and discrimination."[139]

Overall, the message coming from Russia's civil society leaders is that the official reaction to hate-motivated crimes and what these crimes reveal about the plight of Russia's minorities has been both intermittent and largely muted, falling far short of the  visible, concrete concerted action to combat racist violence and related hate crimes that is required.