Coalition Against Hate

Statement of Solidarity with the Russian People

Sun, 11 Dec 2011 09:33:45 -0500

Union of Councils expresses solidarity with democratic forces in Russia who strongly protest against the falsification of parliamentary election results. Today, big rallies in Moscow, Petersburg, Novosibirsk, Ekaterinburg, and many other cities and towns across Russia showed that Russian civil society not only exists, but is fighting for democratization and political-economic reforms.

We support the demands of human rights organizations to cancel the results of the election and initiate new ones under strong monitoring by local and international organizations and media. We were pleased that the protests have been peaceful and cooperative with police.

UCSJ wishes great success to our Russian human rights friends and partners in developing democratic practice, institutions and traditions. We are ready to help them approach these high goals.

Violence in Lviv

Sat, 26 Nov 2011 18:25:44 -0500

LVIV, UKRAINE - Several young men have beaten up a student from Moroссo in a central city street. The attack happened suddenly. The victim and witness suggest that the attack was motivated by racial hatred. The police refused to accept the statement, because nobody in the nearest police station understood English. Policemen refused the translation of the bystander, because it is forbidden according by protocol to use unofficial translators.

Attacks on Foreigners in Ternopil City

Sat, 26 Nov 2011 17:30:01 -0500

TERNOPIL, UKRAINE - Between November 15-20 more than eight international students have been attacked and beaten just from from the dormitory for students of Ternopil medical University. Police were notified. The students were from Sudan, Nigeria, Somalia, Cameroon, and Ghana.

UCSJ Condemns Sentence of Ales Belyatsky

Sat, 26 Nov 2011 17:09:00 -0500

Join us in protest against the unfair and politically motivited sentence of leading Belarussian activist Ales Belyatsky.

Ales Belyatsky, president of NGO Viasna (Spring) is a well-known, honest patriot and champion of democratic reform in Belarus.

The money he received from donors was spent soley to promote human rights and help political prisoners and their families. He is accused in non-paying the taxes from his “profit.”

A Minsk court sentenced him on November 25, 2011 to four-and-half-years in a labor camp.

The Belarussian authorities have activists in a bind: they cannot legally register their organizations or receive financial support from abroad.

This sentence proves that Belarussian authorities continue to dupe the public and Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) governments by not releasing all political prisoners.

In additon to Belyatsky, the leading opposition presidetial candidate Andrey Sannnikov is still in a labor camp, along with many others. UCSJ demands that Belyatsky’s sentence be overturned and that Belarus accord with its UN and OSCE obligations.

David Waksberg on Jewish Personhood

Sat, 12 Nov 2011 14:07:45 -0500

When I was 13 years old, a group of people tried to steal an airplane in a desperate attempt to escape the USSR and call international attention to the plight of Soviet Jews.

They failed in their first objective and succeeded in their 2^nd one. Until the Leningrad trials, the only thing I knew about Jews from Eastern Europe were the faces in the family photos on my grandparents’ apartment wall, all of whom had perished from unnatural causes.

In solidarity with one of the two defendants initially sentenced to death, I got myself this huge magen david on a necklace with the name of Mark Dymshitz and wore it to school every day.

One day an African-American friend of mine asked me why I was wearing this big Jewish star around my neck. I explained to him who Mark Dymshitz was, what the cause was about and also, that I wanted people to know I was Jewish. He pondered this for a moment and then started rubbing the skin on his face and said – “see this? I wear this so people will know I’m black!”

That boy understood something I hadn’t - In fact, that necklace was my skin, my badge, my secular kippah. That the teenage me wore this necklace not only to call attention to Mark Dymshitz and his friends, but also to myself – as a Jew – was neither unique nor trivial. For many American Jews, the great re-awakening of Soviet Jewish consciousness was a wake-up call here. During the 70s and 80s, activism on behalf of Soviet Jews was, for many American Jews, their primary means of Jewish expression. Through this activity, many found their way to their own meaningful Jewish life. Observing thousands of Russian Jews risking all to partake in what we all took for granted – Jewish life – was not only inspiring, it was thought-provoking. Perhaps there was more to being Jewish than we had thought.

The teenage me graduated to other methods beyond wearing a necklace, and, to be honest, wearing the name Dymshitz on my chest every day was problematic for my teenage social life.

As more Soviet Jews ran afoul of the KGB, more names for posters, necklaces, buttons, and bracelets. Here’s one I wore as a teenager – with the name of my co-panelist – Joseph Begun.

All these accoutrements – buttons, posters, bumper stickers, bracelets, not to mention pickets, petitions, etc. – I was never sure what exactly they were accomplishing, but they were my entry in. And for many young Jews they were, along with Israel, a set of symbols and tools by which we defined what sort of modern Jews we wanted to be: proud, assertive, defiant, principled – like our role models across the ocean.

The movement had several points of origin, including Israel and, of course, within the Soviet Union itself. I will let others speak of what went on there. I want to address what this thing was about from the perspective of those individuals involved with the Union of Councils and its associates, what we referred to as “the activists.”

This was not a movement based on ideology or theory or, for the most part, theology. While there were high-minded theoretical treatises and strategic position papers, these were not what drove us. The movement was based on the observation of empirical evidence as it unfolded in Russia, and, more than anything, on outrage. We saw something for which outrage was the only sane response, so outrage was our response. That outrage came from a human place and also from the specter, never distant, of the six million who perished at the hands of totalitarianism, and knowledge and shame of our own impotence to prevent it. For Jacob Birnbaum, Moshe Decter, and others who kick-started this movement here in the mid-sixties, the Holocaust was barely two decades removed. Harold Light, who founded the Bay Area Council for Soviet Jews, and who spoke in a distinctly AMERICAN voice, said it well – “it’s not often you get a 2^nd chance to rescue your people.”

I must confess that I am struck by the relative scarcity of women among the speakers at this conference, given the leadership role that women played in the American movement to free Soviet Jews. I understand that some of them, like Lynn Singer and Irene Manekovsky, are no longer around, and others, like Pam Cohen, were unable to attend. So I’ll simply say that the KGB colonel who told Sharansky that his fate was in the hands of “students and housewives” had it right. I began as a student, as did other leaders like Morey Schapira, and most everything we got right we learned from those housewives.

Those students and housewives didn’t confine themselves to public protest – they engaged in political advocacy at the highest and most sophisticated levels. And I never saw more effective advocacy in Congress, the White House or the State Department than that practiced by these housewives. They had a talent to cut to the core of the issue and to appeal to the basic humanity of those in power. If you don’t believe me, listen to George Schultz speak about his public service. For this smart and seasoned man who stood at the apex of geo-political power and influence, his most memorable and meaningful moment was when he received a phone call from Ida Nudel after she arrived in Israel with the simple words – “I’m home.”

Peoplehood means many things and we as a people are still in the process of defining just what 21^st century peoplehood represents. Certainly, it has something to do with a deep sense of connection we feel toward one another – connection and responsibility – expressed by the phrase – kol yisrael arevim zeh le zeh (all Israel is responsible one to another). I can tell you the meaning of this phrase for me is wrapped in the way that I learned it. I didn’t learn it in Hebrew school or in my Bar Mitzvah training. It was introduced to me by Eliezer Yuzefovich, a Moscow refusenik who uttered those words when I asked him why he, a father of young children, was embarking on a hunger strike.

There is much in the history of this movement worth mining if we indeed want to establish a strong sense of peoplehood. For this endeavor – to free our people – was indeed a global partnership and one that stubbornly defied efforts to control it. It was a deeply human movement – characterized by human faces, stories, emotions.

A strange thought occurred to me as I was preparing these remarks. What drove American Jews to rise up as they did for their brothers and sisters whom they had never met? I think among their motivations – loneliness. I don’t mean that we were personally lonely, individuals devoid of friends and companionship. I mean that we, as a people felt a loss that we could barely articulate – like an amputee feels in missing a limb. It was the loss of the six million to our body politic, to our people and, beyond that the loss borne of the forced isolation of those who survived behind the Iron Curtain. We were lonely as a people and, on some very deep and visceral level, we yearned for reunification of our family, for the embrace of our long-lost loved ones. I know I am not the only American Jew who, during those dark days of the 70s and 80s, felt most alive and fulfilled when sitting at a kitchen table in Moscow or Leningrad or Kiev or Minsk, engaged in hours of conversation with Jews I had never before met but with whom I found instant kinship. And I know I’m not the only American Jew who found himself among a group of Jewish refuseniks in the USSR only to realize in amazement how familiar it felt – how these people were JUST like my uncles, aunts, and cousins.

Peoplehood indeed.

What inspired us were stories of courage, of course, but also stories of discovery or rediscovery – a sort of Master Class in “What Being Jewish Means to Me.” I will share but one – only to illustrate its connection to and illumination of the American Jewish experience and of what Peoplehood can mean for us –

Alexander Paritsky, a refusenik from Kharkov, had been a successful scientist until he applied for a visa for Israel. One thing led to another and Paritsky found himself arrested and sent to a harsh labor camp.

The camp commandant asked him why he threw away a successful Soviet life for this hopeless quest.

Paritsky told the commandant that when he was six years old, kids taunted him with “Zhid.” He’d never heard this word before and indeed, hadn’t been aware that he was Jewish so he ran home to speak with his father.

“Yes, we are Jews,” Paritsky’s dad told him. “Jews are no different than Russians or Ukrainians – we are all the same. Those children who say otherwise are bad.”

Paritsky was intrigued by this. Other nationalities - Ukrainians, Moldovans, Armenians - had their own culture, their own language. Do Jews have their own language?

“Yes,” said his dad – “it’s called Hebrew.”

What do the letters look like? Asked little Sasha.

His father took a piece of paper and a pencil and, with his little boy on his lap put the pencil to paper, to write out the aleph bet.

Sasha sat there watching the pencil poised motionless over the page for what probably felt like eternity. Finally, he saw not writing, but a tear drop fall on the paper.

“Papa,” little Sasha cried out, “why are you crying?”

“Because,” said his father, “I can’t remember how to draw the letters.”

“My father’s tears,” Paritsky told the commandant, “seared a hole in my heart and my soul.”

His journey to Israel, by way of the Gulag, began with that blank sheet of paper.

This story, one of thousands, represented a sort of extreme dystopian fun-house mirror image of our own experience of modernity. What American Jew could not relate to this sad scenario of Jewish illiteracy? And who would not think twice before discarding that same precious gift that Paritsky, through courage, determination and three years in the Gulag, struggled to reclaim?

Paritsky’s father’s words seared a hole not only in Paritsky’s heart, but in mine. These stories, and there were thousands of them, seared a hole in the collective heart of American Jewry.

At the end of the day, we realized that their stories were our stories. Through these stories, through these human connections, commonalities of experience, of heritage, and of destiny were learned and a partnership was forged.

Isn’t that what Peoplehood is about?

(David was director of the Bay Area Council on Soviet Jews. He currently serves as CEO of the Bureau of Jewish Education)

Verdicts in Russian Racial Crime Cases

Mon, 07 Nov 2011 17:01:00 -0500

Anti-Caucasian rallies continued. The public campaign “Stop feeding the Caucasus” culminated in a Moscow rally on October 22nd that featured anti-corruption and xenophobic slogans. Nevertheless, it failed to mobilize significant support with only 500 attendees. Meanwhile, the well-known blogger and anti-corruption activist Alexey Navalny was one of the key speakers along with the leader of the pro-democracy People’s Freedom Party, Vladimir Milov. These “liberal” politicians who are regarded as respectable opposition to Putin spoke alongside more odious nationalist leaders of the xenophobic “Movement against Illegal Immigration.”

There were also some important criminal verdicts. Recent migrants from the Caucasus were sentenced to prison for the death of “Spartak” football fan Egor Sviridov. (Spartak fans are known for their nationalistic and xenophobic tendencies.) Sviridov was shot during a brawl with Caucasian fans. His death caused a nationalist demonstration and clashes with police in Moscow’s Manezhnaya Square which resulted in five arrests and sentences of two-to-six-and-a-half years. The killer, Aslan Cherkesov, received 20 years in prison; his “accomplices” five years each.

In a related incident, Chechens involved in the death of a Spartak fan were sentenced to 17 and six years in prison respectively. These sentences were clearly intended to precede the Russian March, a massive nationalist rally that occurs annually on November 4th.
According to the SOVA Center, at least 14 persons in at least seven regions of the country were victims of hate crimes in October. Seven acts of neo-Nazi vandalism were also recorded.

As December 4th parliamentary near, parties continue to toy with the nationalistic electorate. The Liberal Democratic Party of Russia (LDPR) included as a candidate on its list the son of an army colonel blamed for raping and killing a Chechen girl.# That is one of the ways LDPR intends to court the right-wing electorate. The party also invited various activists, including those from extreme-right groups to serve as observers for LDPR during elections. The party list also includes Maxim Korotkov-Gulyaev, the attorney of Evgeny Khasis, who was sentenced for the murder of human rights and anti-fascist lawyer Stanislav Markelov. The party caucus took place under the slogan «For Russians!».

fyeaheasterneurope: Time lapse video of St. Petersburg,...

Mon, 07 Nov 2011 16:48:39 -0500

fyeaheasterneurope:

Time lapse video of St. Petersburg, Russia.

This is by the same guy who did the time lapse video of Minsk I posted awhile ago and this one is just as awesome.

youthattackmob: Russia celebrates the end of WWII. Moscow....

Mon, 07 Nov 2011 16:41:14 -0500

youthattackmob:

Russia celebrates the end of WWII.

Moscow. 1945.

Russia satirists use YouTube to challenge Kremlin

Fri, 04 Nov 2011 16:49:00 -0400

By Stephen Ennis BBC Monitoring

Cult cartoon character Mr Freeman is part of a digital onslaught on the political establishment

Media control has been one of the key factors that have allowed Prime Minister Vladimir Putin to dominate Russia’s political landscape since he was first elected president in 2000.

As the country prepares for parliamentary and presidential elections, though, there are signs that the Kremlin is facing a fresh media challenge in the form of an increasingly politicised audience on YouTube.

Over the past few weeks, a number of Russian politics-themed clips on YouTube have achieved over one million views.

The videos are in a variety of genres - political polemic, satire and song - but they have one thing in common: a critical or irreverent attitude to the country’s leadership - Mr Putin, President Dmitry Medvedev and their party, United Russia.

Earlier this year, anti-corruption campaigner and blogger Aleksey Navalnyy launched a web campaign against United Russia under the banner “Party of Crooks and Thieves”.

One of the latest instalments in this campaign is a clip on his YouTube channel entitled: “Let’s remind the crooks and thieves of their 2002 manifesto”. The video lists what it says are United Russia’s failures and broken pledges, and concludes: “They have not just lied, they have brought the country to such a state that these and other promises seem to be mockeries”. It also urges viewers to vote for any party but United Russia in December’s parliamentary election.

The video was posted on YouTube on 7 October. By 28 October, it been viewed more than a million times.

Satire

YouTube is not only giving a powerful voice to the opposition, it is also helping to revive subversive art forms.

TV political satire has been virtually extinct in Russia since the puppet show Kukly (along the lines of the now-defunct UK satirical programme Spitting Image) disappeared from the screens shortly after Mr Putin came to power.

Now, though, this kind of satire is making a comeback on the internet. Not all the satire is anti-government, but it is generally irreverent towards authority.

Kamikadze_d is a popular online satirist

One of its brightest exponents on YouTube is Dmitry Ivanov, who uses the online nickname Kamikadze_d.

Ivanov’s fast-talking stand-up routines on the Russian political scene have been growing in popularity for several months now.

The first of them to break the one-million-view mark was a lampoon of a TV debate between leading politicians that was posted on 9 September.

Ivanov quickly repeated the feat with a routine called “Putin’s terrible secret”, in which he suggests that hidden clones of the prime minister are taking over Russia.

For those who like their satire a bit darker, there is Mr Freeman, a spooky black-and-white cartoon character whose nightmarish visions of the modern world have won him a cult following among Russian internet users.

On 11 October Mr Freeman abandoned satire and posted an “open letter” to President Medvedev, urging him to stop Mr Putin from becoming president again. By the end of the month it, too, had got over a million views.

The clip says Mr Putin’s first stint as president “plunged Russia into a medieval gloom” and that the only way to prevent a repeat of this is for Mr Medvedev to sack him from the post of prime minister.

Protest music

YouTube has also helped revive Russian protest music, which, like satire, has been virtually banned from popular mainstream media outlets.

In 2010, hip-hop artist Ivan Alekseyev, aka Noize MC, got over a million views with a song about his imprisonment for singing anti-police lyrics at a concert in Volgograd.

Another protest song that has gone viral is “Our madhouse is voting for Putin” by the Yekaterinburg-based band Rabfak, which has already reached an aggregate audience of over one million since being posted on YouTube on 11 October.

The song describes how Russia is awash with corruption and abuses, but says that people will still support Mr Putin. And it warns that those who question this will be given “an injection in the backside”.

The jaunty refrain runs:

“Our madhouse is voting for Putin; Putin is just the candidate for us”

Politicisation

Mr Putin has been the target of numerous satirical videos recently

According to the latest research by polling organisation the Public Opinion Foundation (FOM), some 60 million Russians now have access to the internet out of a total population of just over 140 million.

Until recently, though, political content on the internet has not tended to attract a mass audience.

In 2010, there were some signs that this was changing - most notably, the growing popularity of protest songs.

The appearance of a spate of overtly political videos with one-million-plus audiences in just a few weeks is unprecedented. The Russian website Gazeta.ru lists its 10 favourites. Only six Russian clips got over one million views in the whole of 2010. And it is a further sign that the internet audience in Russia is becoming increasingly politicised.

Moreover, the prevailing political mood is distinctly anti-government.

Since Mr Medvedev became president in 2008, the authorities have made great efforts to influence the internet community. The president himself launched a videoblog and then a Twitter account, which currently has over 625,000 followers.

But on Twitter, as on YouTube, the political traffic appears to be mainly one-way. In October, a pro-government activist tried to celebrate Mr Putin’s birthday with the hashtag “SpasiboPutinuZaEto” (ThanksPutinForThat). But his plan backfired, as the hashtag became a magnet for jokes at the prime minister’s expense.

Changing perceptions

Anti-government or satirical clips on YouTube are unlikely to have a decisive effect on the outcome of the forthcoming elections.

But they may already be changing perceptions.

Recent research by academics from Moscow State University found that Mr Putin is regarded in a much more negative light today than before the previous presidential elections he fought in 2000 and 2004.

The researchers found that just 17.1% of respondents had a positive view of his professional capacities as against 69% in 2000 and 64 per cent in 2004. According to the website Gazeta.ru, among the negative sides of Mr Putin’s rule listed by respondents were “unfulfilled promises”, “failure to solve corruption problems”, “excessive populism” and “excessive authoritarianism”.

Watching political content on YouTube is likely to reinforce these perceptions.

allthingseurope: Lviv, Ukraine (by Qba from Poland)

Fri, 04 Nov 2011 16:46:24 -0400

allthingseurope:

Lviv, Ukraine

(by Qba from Poland)

Russia: Prohibition of Religious Groups

Thu, 03 Nov 2011 16:13:10 -0400

Alexandria, VA - November 1, 2011 - On 6 October 2011, the Russian Ministry of Justice published a draft of amendments to the 1997 Federal Law “On Freedom of Conscience and Religious Associations” (“Religion Law).

Public comment regarding these proposed amendments was closed on 10 October 2011. To date, they have not been introduced in the Duma.

THE INSTITUTE on Religion and Public Policy has obtained an English translation of the proposed Ministry of Justice amendments for this analysis.

Review of the draft law by the INSTITUTE’S Expert Committee on Legislation and Implementation leads to the conclusion that passage of this legislation would represent a further serious setback for religious freedom in Russia.

The Religion Law contravenes European Human Rights Convention, OSCE and United Nations standards that Russia is bound to follow, as it flagrantly discriminates against minority religious groups.

In the INSTITUTE’S opinion, the draft Religion Law is completely inconsistent with fundamental human rights as it contravenes the principles of equality and non-discrimination.

The INSTITUTE urges Russia to request the assistance of the OSCE Panel of Religious Experts to review the draft amendments to the 1997 Religion Law so that the panel may advise the government regarding the compatibility of the provisions of the proposed legislation with OSCE standards and international human rights law.

The full expert analysis of the law can be viewed here.

Belarus human rights activist Ales Belyatski on trial

Thu, 03 Nov 2011 16:08:05 -0400

Belarus human rights activist Ales Belyatski on trial:

fyeaheasterneurope:

One of Belarus’ most prominent human rights activists has gone on trial in Minsk.

Ales Belyatski runs an organisation called Vyasna (Spring) which monitors the government’s activities against opposition figures.

He was arrested in August and charged with tax evasion after the authorities discovered that he held bank accounts in Poland and Lithuania.

Human rights groups say the trial is an attempt to silence him.

Mr Belyatski maintains that the accounts were necessary to fund Vyasna’s work as the Belarus government prevented him from holding money inside the country.

Vyasna has closely tracked Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko’s ongoing clampdown against the country’s opposition.

Mr Belyatski’s arrest caused controversy when it was discovered that Poland and Lithuania had supplied Belarusian officials with his bank details.

Polish officials later apologised for aiding Mr Lukashenko in his campaign against the Belarusian opposition.

U.S. Must Redouble Human Rights Efforts in Russia

Tue, 25 Oct 2011 16:13:39 -0400

U.S. assistant secretary of state for the bureau of democracy, human rights and labor in the Moscow region said the United States needs to “redouble” its efforts to press Russia on protecting human rights.

Full article: http://www.themoscowtimes.com/opinion/article/why-some-russians-need-the-wests-help/445999.html

fyeaheasterneurope: Kiev, Ukraine.

Mon, 24 Oct 2011 14:28:17 -0400

fyeaheasterneurope:

Kiev, Ukraine.

fyeaheasterneurope: Time-lapse video of Minsk, Belarus.

Sun, 23 Oct 2011 22:22:15 -0400

fyeaheasterneurope:

Time-lapse video of Minsk, Belarus.

More Racist Football Violence

Sun, 23 Oct 2011 22:06:02 -0400

Doesn’t look like things are going to be getting much better at football games. The Moscow Times reports that 3 Uzbeks have been taken into custody for beating an ethnic Russia to death. Unfortunately,

“The Investigative Committee and the city government have denied that the flight resulted from ethnic tension.”

No one seems to be buying it, and politicians are likely to stoke the flames in upcoming elections. Annual nationalist rallies next week won’t help.

Russia battles racism in football

Sat, 22 Oct 2011 18:21:18 -0400

Russia battles racism in football

Georgia Raids Tycoon's Bank

Sat, 22 Oct 2011 16:51:52 -0400

Looks like more evidence that weak rule of law is bad for business.21 October 2011

TBILISI — Georgian police seized $2 million and 1 million euros ($1.4 million) from billionaire opposition leader Bidzina Ivanishvili’s Cartu Bank on suspicion of money laundering, Interpressnews reported.

“This had nothing to do with money laundering,” Cartu president Nodar Javakhishvili said. “We needed cash to comply with banking regulations. This was a case of going to another bank to get cash.”

Ivanishvili was stripped of Georgian citizenship on Oct. 11, four days after he announced plans to create an opposition party to challenge President Mikheil Saakashvili. In May, Ivanishvili accused the president of orchestrating a smear campaign against him by spreading rumors that he was bankrolling the government.

(Moscow Times/Bloomberg)

Bulletin # 51 of the Kazakhstan Bureau on Human Rights and the Rule of Law (excerpts)

Tue, 18 Oct 2011 22:59:09 -0400

We began to to investigate the draft law regarding religious activity
and religious organizations. It was introduced to Parliament last month. We officially asked to invite lawyers to parliamentary committees, but officials did not allow experts to take part in discussions. The draft of this law is
repressive in character, but it was adopted quickly manner on September 21,
2011, and was sent to the President for his signature.

On October 11-12, 2011, we discussed the law and asked for comments from Mr. Meirkhan Shalobayev, official from the regional prosecutor’s office. Yet, he refused to speak to the subject and instead talked mostly about the activity of so-called destructive sects.

Chairman of the Kostanai Appeal Collegium (Bar) of the regional Court Mr.Vladimir Shakun acknowledged that Bureau Director Eugeny Zhovtis could receive lower term for his car incident with dead victim.

The Republic Sociological Service informed that only 35% of Kazakhstan citizens trust the courts sentences. Association of Sociologists and Politologists presented one year ago the results of investigation about corruption in the court system. The average size of the bribe for necessary decision in the Supreme Court is $ 4,000; in regional courts - $7,000. The Chairman of the Supreme Court Bektas Beknazarov issued the request to the sociologists to retract this study, insisting that there is not such situation in Kazakhstan.

(Bureau was established by UCSJ)

Recent Events in Russia by Daniil Mescheryakov

Fri, 14 Oct 2011 15:57:00 -0400

In September, anti-Caucasian attitudes provoked by an August 2011 murder spread. The issue of so-called “ethic crimes” has come to the forefront of public debates, and with the start of the State Duma (the lower house of parliament) campaign season, members of the center-right bloc began using nationalistic slogans. Experts expect it to the a theme in coming months.

In a sign of growing nationalism, the Liberal Democratic Party adopted the slogan “For the Russians!”, while the newly revived, nationalistic Congress of Russian Communities Party announced its “Russia Program.” Putin and his ruling party will not be able to the ignore the power of nationalist sentiment to attract voters.

From late August to early October, ultra-nationalist organizations actively exploited the theme of ethnic crimes. They organized actions and campaigns around crimes committed by Caucasians. On August 25, an unauthorized action called “The Murderer has to Sit in Prison” at the Moscow District Court took place. The protest was against the release of Rasul Mirzae, a prominent martial artist from the Russia’s North Caucasus Republic of Dagestan, who was taken into custody after striking a student who then died as a result of the blow.

In response, a series of actions by the fascist All-Russian Movement against “ethnic crime” took place in Moscow, St. Petersburg, Novosibirsk, Tomsk, Saratov, Sktyvkar, and Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk. In Kazan, the action was held to coincide with the birthday of Daria Mkslmova, a 17-year-old girl who was supposedly raped and murdered by “people from the Caucasuses.”

Disturbingly, a new, ultra-right coalition called Russian Platform (rusplatforma.org) has been launched. The new effort at unifying ultra-right groups has included a platform item aimed at football clubs that calls for the abolition of “all public and secret preference for the Caucasian football clubs.”

Football fan groups have emerged as forces to be mobilized for actions and campaigns. In September, fans hung banners with neo-Nazi symbols and xenophobic slogans during at least five games. At one game fans spray-painted xenophobic graffiti on the asphalt near the stadium and hung a banner which said, “Born in Russia. Live in Russia. Die for Russia.”

On September 6, the Yuri Levada Analytical Center published the results of their survey “Nationalism in Russia.” The survey took place on August 19-23 and surveyed 1,600 people 18 and older in 130 parts of 45 regions in Russia. When asked, “What do you think is the main reason for nationalism in Russian today?,” the most common response was “the provocative actions and behavior of ethnic minorities.” The response was given by 44% of respondents, as compared with 37% in 2007 and 20% in 2004.

Meanwhile, law enforcement has been successful in reducing the number of racist attacks. Still, the SOVA Center for Information and Analysis recorded:
    ●The racially charged murder of a Tajikistan native
    ●The neo-Nazi vandalism of Protestant property
    ●Four cases of vandalism against Jehova’s Witnesses
    ●Two Cases of vandalism of Eastern Orthodox sites
    ●The vandalism of a Muslim site

At least three convictions for racist violence were issued, which condemned seven people. Four sentences were handed out for xenophobic propaganda. One person was jailed for the creation of an extremist organization, the third such conviction this year.