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Extremism, Xenophobia Rising in Russia

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  • Extremism, Xenophobia Rising in Russia

    Extremism, Xenophobia Rising in Russia
    By MARIA DANILOVA, Associated Press Writer

    Associated Press
    June 9 2004

    Semyon Tokmakov stretches out his hand and points to a thick scar
    he got from assaulting a black U.S. 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 U.S. 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."
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