Extremism, xenophobia on the rise in Russia

[citizenkaine]

Associated Press
Moscow, June 9

Semyon Tokmakov stretches out his hand and points to a thick scar he got
from assaulting a black US Marine six years ago. The attack cost him 1
1/2 years in jail, but Tokmakov says he has no regrets.

"We are waging a racial holy war," said Tokmakov, 28, an informal leader
among Moscow's skinheads, whose violence appears to be rising.

Over the last several years, Russia has become a strikingly hostile
place for all those with African, Asian or so-called Caucasian features
- the dark skin and dark hair typical for the peoples of the mountainous
Caucasus region.

The US Marine was badly beaten in 1998 in a Moscow market, one of
several foreigners targeted in recent years. The last few months have
seen an especially shocking series of brutal racial attacks, such as the
stabbing of a Guinea-Bissau student in the central Russian city of
Voronezh, the killing of an Afghan asylum seeker in Moscow, and the
slaying of a 9-year-old Tajik girl in St. Petersburg by suspected skinheads.

Ethnic minorities in Moscow complain that beatings and insults are
almost a daily occurrence.

"Racially motivated crimes are growing in number and brutality by the
year," Alexander Brod, head of the Moscow Bureau for Human Rights, told
The Associated Press in an interview. According to a two-year study
conducted by Brod's bureau and a few other groups, there are about
50,000 skinheads in Russia, with the two biggest cities, Moscow and St
Petersburg, home to about 1,500 each. It said 20-30 people have died in
such attacks annually in the past few years, and the number of such
crimes is growing by 30 percent per year.

"When you kill cockroaches, you don't feel sorry for them, do you?"
Tokmakov said, when asked whether he felt sorry for the slain Tajik girl.

The growing extremist sentiments are rooted in Russia's economic
problems, including high unemployment in many regions, and the collapse
of the Soviet Union, which sent hundreds of thousands of migrants from
poorer former Soviet republics to Russia seeking jobs. "Why have they
all come here?" Tokmakov said. "They bring nothing but drugs and AIDS.
Every day they harass and steal our women."

Ethnic tensions are also fueled by Russia's nearly decade-long military
conflict in the mostly Muslim province of Chechnya. Since shortly before
the start of the second war in 1999, Moscow and several southern Russian
cities have been shaken by a series of deadly blasts and suicide
bombings authorities blame on Chechen rebels, which have further
intensified xenophobic sentiments. Political parties and politicians
openly played the nationalist card in the December parliamentary vote,
calling for the ouster of migrant workers and promoting Russia for
Russians. Two such parties enjoyed victory in the election.

Tokmakov said he and his associates had been on the ballot of one of
these parties, the Homeland bloc, but their names were later crossed
out. Party officials have denied that.

"When there are such economic and other hardships, there are usually two
ways of dealing with it - the first is that of contemplating, the second
is looking for an enemy and blaming him for your problems. Unfortunately
Russia has chosen the second path," Brod said.

Rafael Arkelov, a 47-old Armenian singer who has spent all his life
living in Moscow and for whom Russian is his first language, has
experienced it all.

He was in a grocery store buying a chocolate bar and a bottle of
champagne to visit his friends for a New Year's celebration when a man
asked him for some change. After Arkelov refused to give him money, he
saw the man approach two youths with shaved heads whom he identified as
skinheads standing nearby and whispered something. Several minutes
later, after Arkelov walked out of the store, he was jumped from behind.

"They punched me on my eyes, my face, and all of a sudden I couldn't see
anymore. Then I collapsed to the ground and they started beating me with
their feet," Arkelov recalled. "If it weren't for a woman across the
street who screamed 'What are you doing?', if it weren't for this scream
of hers, I think they would have beaten me to death."

Brod's study predicted that the number of skinheads could grow to
80,000- 100,000 within the next two years if authorities don't take
measures to combat xenophobia. Interior Ministry officials have said
they were closely watching 10,000 suspected members of extremist groups,
but all too often racially motivated attacks are dismissed as hooliganism.

"Racism isn't unique to Russia, I know it exists in Europe and America,"
Arkelov said. "But unlike Russia, in those countries it is prosecuted
and the state pursues specific policies to combat it."

[KGB-CCCP]

Whats your point. Go to Moscow and after you see all the tajicks who aren't doing anything exept for begging for money you will become like that yourself. The women go around collecting money while the men smoke weed all day on the outskirts of Moscow. I'm not surprised to hear this, even though I'm not a skinhead myself.

[dj_who_kid]

But do you condone it is the question, answering "so what" makes you look like one of them. Kiyev has more skinheads than Moscow, so does Lviv. I think they are all ignorant asses who should be deported along with the illegals.

[Rain]

Interesting article, though I wonder where the author got the idea that Caucasians have dark skin.

Russians are alot more Asian due to mongol blood than Caucasians.

R

p.s - This article is reminiscent of the one I posted here almost a year ago - "Russia : Fascism will surely come" by another Russian journalist. Look it up on google. This will not benefit the Russian society.

[Admiral_Kolchak]

>>>>Russians are alot more Asian due to mongol blood than Caucasians. <<<<

Are you kidding me ? Caucasians are Asians with exeption of Indo-European Armenians.

How come Turkic-speaking Azeris or Iranian-speaking Ossetians are not Asian ?

While Chechens and others lived side by side with Asiatic Kalmyks, Tatars and Nogai for as long as Russian do.

[Rain]

Let me rephrase myself, I meant native population of Caucasus is not Asiatic. Many people living in Caucasus today are not its original inhabitants.

Chechens and other native peoples of North Caucasus were never mixed with mongols, like Russians were. They are in the Iberio-Caucasian language group, which has no links to East, West, South or North. Its native, as I said.

R

[KGB-CCCP]

Originally posted by Rain
Let me rephrase myself, I meant native population of Caucasus is not Asiatic. Many people living in Caucasus today are not its original inhabitants.

Chechens and other native peoples of North Caucasus were never mixed with mongols, like Russians were. They are in the Iberio-Caucasian language group, which has no links to East, West, South or North. Its native, as I said.

R

Ok and, arabs have dark skin. That has nothing to do with asia. Its them that are pissing moscow off. I'm not surprised after you send women over to blow themselves up in the Moscow metro.