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Ethnic hate crimes on the increase in Russia

Marianna Belenkaya

Religious and ethnic communities have a big role to play. They should not give in to provocations.

THE MURDER of an imam in Kislovodsk on September 25, the killing of an Indian student a day earlier in St. Petersburg, the robbing of a Sudanese student also in St. Petersburg, and attacks on mosques and synagogues in a number of Russian cities on the eve of the main Jewish and Muslim holidays... Are we witnessing another outbreak of xenophobia in Russia, or are these actions deliberate provocations?

The Prosecutor's Office has instituted criminal proceedings in all these cases under different sections of the penal code. In the case of the imam's murder, legal action is being taken under three items of the criminal code of the Russian Federation — manslaughter, illegal bearing and storage of arms, and resistance to the police. The main version of the story seems to be that the imam was murdered for personal reasons. Nevertheless, the Council of Muftis of Russia has described the tragedy as a provocation against Muslims.

"What happened in Kislovodsk in the late hours of September 25 — the cruel murder of the imam at the threshold of his own house — is a link in a chain of recent tragedies: attempts on the life and murder of Muslim clerics in Dagestan and Chechnya, attacks on mosques and clerics in Sergiyev Posad, Yakhroma, and Yaroslavl," a statement of the Council of Muftis said.

Xenophobia concerns not only Muslims but also members of other religions, as well as people of different races and nationalities.

The authorities have qualified the events in St. Petersburg as "hooligan-motivated manslaughter" and "robbery." The attack on a mosque in Yaroslavl was attributed to hooligan motives as well. Human rights activists believe such a qualification of these crimes makes offenders feel they can get away with them and misleads society. It may decide that the problem of xenophobia is not as serious in Russia as it really is.

This is true, but there are other trends as well. It is no longer easy to deceive the public, and many people are associating these crimes with xenophobia. The problem is not being hushed up. To the contrary, the media are discussing it at length; many political and public figures consider it their duty to express their opinion on this score; and different programmes have been suggested to eradicate ethnic hatred. The question is whether all these measures are achieving the desired effect.

Complex situation

The situation is far more complicated than it seems at first sight. Xenophobia conceals many other trends. We have to agree with law-enforcement bodies that an attack on a man of a different skin colour does not unequivocally point to racial hatred. It may mean many other things. The victims are not always innocent, either. Human rights organisations closely follow all such crimes and try not to list criminal shootouts in their ethnic hatred statistics. However, any incidents linked to ethnic motives, directly or otherwise, do not improve the social atmosphere, and quite often it does not matter who is right and who is not.

"Attacks on and murders of foreign students are damaging Russia's international reputation and its national traditions," said Vladimir Slutsker, deputy chairman of the United Commission on Nationalities Policy and Relations between the State and Religious Associations of the Russian Federation Council.

Commenting on the murder of the Indian student, officials from the Prosecutor's Office in St. Petersburg said that so far the motives were not clear and that all explanations were being considered. It is possible that when the motives have been established, the charge will be revised.

There is every reason to believe that this is true. In the middle of September, a precedent was set — a new verdict was passed on Alexander Koptsev, who was convicted of carrying out an attack in the Moscow Synagogue in January 2006.

Last March he was sentenced to 13 years in prison. "The court believes that Koptsev committed the crime because of ethnic and religious motives, but he did not try to fan hatred," the Moscow City Court ruled. The verdict also said national enmity did not exist in Russian society. The lawyers for the victim's party went in appeal to the Supreme Court. The verdict was overruled, and on September 15 the Moscow City Court found Koptsev guilty of encouraging ethnic strife and attempted murder.

"We wanted the verdict in this case to prevent other crimes based on ethnic and religious hatred," said Russia's Chief Rabbi Berl Lazar on the new verdict. Hopefully, this precedent will help toughen Russian legislation on xenophobia.

Indicatively, almost simultaneously with the attacks on synagogues in Astrakhan and Khabarovsk, Russian Prosecutor-General Yury Chaika announced the formation in his office of a special department to monitor ethnic relations.

The Federation of Jewish Communities of Russia (FJCR) did not fail to notice the attempts by the authorities to improve the situation. "The decision to establish a special department to counter xenophobia shows that the Russian authorities are aware of possible developments, and attach much importance to the preservation of ethnic peace in Russia. The FJCR hopes that the investigators will focus their attention not only on the doings of hitmen but also on the activities of those who inspire them by stirring up hatred towards people of other religions or skin colours," said a statement from the FJCR's press service.

Hopefully, these initiatives will help achieve the desired effect at the grass roots level. Paradoxically, neither the authorities nor the majority of Russians condone ethnic hate crimes, but they are still being committed with surprising frequency. Religious and ethnic communities should play a big role here — they should not give in to provocations and should instead let the authorities do their job. — RIA Novosti

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