Volume 2, Number 30
Friday, August 2, 2002

BIGOTRY MONITOR
A Weekly Human Rights Newsletter on Antisemitism, Xenophobia, andReligious Persecution in the Former Communist World and Western Europe

EDITOR: CHARLES FENYVESI
(News and Editorial Policy within the sole discretion of the editor)

Published by UCSJ: Union of Councils for Jews in the Former Soviet Union
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PUTIN VOWS TO DESTROY 'BACILLUS OF CHAUVINISM.' "Extremism undermines the very foundations of the existence of the state," and it is "absolutely destructive" because Russia "is made up of many nationalities and many religions," President Vladimir Putin said on July 25 on Moscow's RTR television. The occasion was Putin's receiving a visitor: Tatyana Sapunova, the 27-year-old Russian woman injured while removing a boobytrapped antisemitic sign on May 27. While she was undergoing a series of surgical procedures in a Tel Aviv hospital, Putin awarded her with the Order of Courage. Now Putin told her that "actions such as yours show" that "in Russia, thank God, there are far more people who understand the essence of these problems and who are ready to fight this than there are people in the other category"-- those who encourage extremism. Putin said that the perpetrators of extremist crimes either deliberately aim at destroying the country or "they do not understand what they are doing because of a limited intellect and a low level of culture." He warned that "if we allow the development of this bacillus of chauvinism, or national or religious intolerance, we will destroy the country."

The TV program pointed out that while doctors restored Sapunova's sight, the police investigation has not found the culprit.

PIPE BOMB BEARING ANTISEMITIC MESSAGE EXPLODES IN MOSCOW. At 3:10 a.m. on July 28 a homemade pipe bomb bearing the slogan "Death to the Kikes" exploded in Moscow's residential area of Yasenevo, the police told Interfax. It shattered windows in a nearby apartment building but caused no injuries. Apparently the bomb was thrown into the balcony of an apartment. No Jews live in the apartment or in the apartment building, the police added.

The incident is a case of "mere hooliganism," a Ministry of Interior official said, and not of extremism or antisemitism. But Chief Rabbi of Russia Beryl Lazar called it "an act of terrorism" aimed at "all civilized people" and urged the authorities "to take extraordinary measures."

On July 30, yet another antisemitic sign was spotted at 2:30 a.m., 29 kilometers from Moscow near the village of Yeryomino along the Dmitrov highway, a law enforcement source told Interfax. Underneath the sign the police found a plastic bag containing two tins filled with sand and a beer can.

MURMANSK JEWISH CENTER VANDALIZED. On July 28, unidentified persons vandalized the building of the Jewish Charity Center in the Arctic city of Murmansk, according to the center's director, Diana Raskina. One of the intruders drew a Chasidic Jew with the words "Matzo is gobbled up here! Suitcase! Train station! Israel!" Last year, vandals daubed "Kikes are jerks!" on the walls of the building. Raskin told UCSJ that she is worried that the graffiti will scare off the mostly elderly Jews who visit the center, and depend on it both materially and psychologically. UCSJ's Moscow Bureau sent a letter to the Murmansk Prosecutor's Office asking for an investigation.

MORE THAN A HUNDRED GRAVESTONES VANDALIZED IN ST. PETERSBURG. Unidentified persons defaced more than a hundred gravestones in the Bogoslovskoe cemetery in St. Petersburg on the nights of July 18 and 21, according to a July 31 report by the Armenian news agency Arminfo. Though the report avoids mentioning if any of the graves belonged to ethnic Armenians, it seems likely that some of them did. Armenian Consul-General in St. Petersburg Ruben Akopyan visited the cemetery and emphasized on television that the graves of the noted Armenian Academician Iosif Orbeli and members of his family had not been damaged. However, he noted that the graves of Russians, Georgians, Jews, Tartars, and many other nationalities had been desecrated.

Akopyan said that the extremism that has recently manifested itself in Russia is not directed against people of one particular nationality, but is a general and dangerous phenomenon that could get worse. He expressed the view that those responsible for extremist acts should be condemned but denied that the phenomenon is an aspect of Armenian-Russian relations. Presumably, he was referring to cemetery desecrations.

ANTISEMITISM MARS COMMEMORATION OF THE LAST TSAR'S MURDER. In two cities, antisemitism marred the ceremonies commemorating the anniversary of the murder of Tsar Nicholas II and his family.

On July 17 in Lipetsk, about 150 people took part in a march organized by the local branch of "Pamyat," known as the grandfather of Russia's far-right movements, according to UCSJ's local monitor Aleksandr Veryatin. Participants talked about Satanism having Jewish roots, claimed that Jews are to blame for Russia's problems, and warned people not to drink a popular brand of beer called Baltika because Jews add "sacrificial blood" to it. Father Andrey, a representative of the local Russian Orthodox diocese, told the UCSJ monitor that the diocese had nothing to do with the march and did not know about it ahead of time.

On July 18 in Ivanovo, some 500 people including members of the city and regional administration and the local Russian Orthodox diocese watched the film "Russian Golgotha" that claims that the last tsar and his family were victims of ritual murder by Jews and Freemasons. According to UCSJ monitor Mikhail Rassadin, organizers of the event brusquely told the head of the local Jewish community, Ervin Kirshteyn, and other communal leaders to leave the premises, as their presence was "inappropriate."

RUSSIAN COURT SHUTS DOWN SECOND EXTREMIST NEWSPAPER. For the second time within a month, on July 26 a Russian court ordered the shutdown of a newspaper on charges, filed by the Ministry of the Press, that it incited ethnic conflict and called for the violent overthrow of the government, according to news agency dispatches. The newspaper closed down is "Limonka" - slang for a hand grenade – which is linked to jailed extremist writer Eduard Limonov, who is awaiting for his trial in the southern city of Saratov on charges of attempting to acquire weapons, preparing terrorist acts, and calling for the overthrow of the government. The newspaper's founder, Sergei Aksyonov, is a codefendant, and both are leaders in the National Bolshevik Party. On July 17, a Timiryazev court ruled in favor of the Ministry of the Press that sought the closure of the "Russkie Vedomosti" newspaper accused of targeting Jews and other minorities. News agencies say this was the first shutdown of a newspaper for inciting hatred of minorities, a criminal offense.

FAR EAST COURT BANS LOCAL BRANCH OF RUSSIAN EXTREMIST GROUP. On July 30, the Khabarovsk Territory Court in Russia's Far East banned the local branch of the neo-Nazi group Russian National Unity (RNU), according to the news agency RIA. Judge Natalya Barabash told RIA that the Russian Justice Ministry's directorate for Khabarovsk Territory filed a lawsuit against the RNU for violating the federal law on public organizations. In particular, the party used a slightly modified swastika as its symbol, she said. Earlier, the Justice Ministry suspended the activities of the RNU local branch and demanded that it stop its illegal actions, Barabash said, but the organization did not obey the order. She noted that the RNU could appeal the ruling.

According to the Center for Journalism in Extreme Situations, the court ruling makes Khabarovsk the fourth Russian jurisdiction to ban the RNU (the others are the city of Moscow, Sverdlovsk Oblast, and the Republic of Kareliya). In its analysis of the ruling, the center singled out the court's remark that the RNU charter was not in conformity with its actual activities.

In its report, the center characterized the Khabarovsk RNU as one of the most powerful in Russia, with RNU members walking freely through the streets of the city in their black uniforms and swastika armbands, distributing the movement’s propaganda. On April 20, the anniversary of Adolf Hitler's birth, the Japanese consulate in Khabarovsk warned its citizens not to leave their homes so as to avoid exposing themselves to attacks by RNU members and other neo-Nazis.

A week before the court decision, the Vostok-Media news agency reported that Khabarovsk city officials in charge of youth policy warned that there are nine skinhead gangs operating in the city, the RNU was becoming more active, a youth club called the Khabarovsk Patriotic Club is spreading "nationalistic ideology," and "nationalistic newspapers" have started to appear in city newsstands. The officials recommended that city officials initiate programs to teach "healthy patriotism" to local youth.

THE ORTHODOX CHURCH AND ROMAN CATHOLICS WAGE A WAR OF WORDS. The Orthodox Patriarchate of Moscow is waging "an increasingly intense campaign" against the alleged proselytism of Roman Catholic clergy in Russia, according to a joint article in "The Moscow Times" on July 24 by Lawrence Uzzell, head of the Oxford-based Keston Institute, and Geraldine Fagan, its Moscow correspondent. At the same time, Russia's secular authorities have cracked down on Catholics, most dramatically in the expulsion of Bishop Jerzy Mazur. The two writers believe that "a certain 'division of labor' has emerged, with secular officials taking concrete measures against Roman Catholics and the Moscow Patriarchate providing the propaganda campaign to justify those measures." The arrangement "nicely fits" President Vladimir Putin's political interests, the argument continues, as he can satisfy "domestic xenophobes while still presenting a more or less civilized face to world opinion." No Russian official has justified Bishop Mazur's expulsion, but they have also failed to reverse it. Three months after the authorities at Sheremetyevo Airport barred him from returning to Russia, he is still in Warsaw.

The two writers say that in May, Pope John Paul II weighed in with a letter to Putin requesting a full explanation for Mazur's expulsion. The Vatican had yet to receive a reply, Keston News Service was told recently.

Meanwhile, the Moscow Patriarchate has launched a new media campaign against Catholics, publishing detailed accounts of episodes in which Catholics have allegedly engaged in proselytism in Russia. In one example, the Catholics were accused of having used some of their orphanages to win converts among Orthodox children. "The Catholics have responded with detailed denials," the two writers note, and "a full-scale war of words" is on between the two confessions.

RUSSIANS IN UKRAINE CHARGE MISTREATMENT BY LOCAL POLICE. The leader of the Ukrainian Russian Movement, Alexander Svistunov, has charged that Ukrainian law enforcement officers do not cut short sallies by thugs of "Ukrainian nationalist structures," thus fanning ethnic strife, Itar-Tass reported from Kyiv on July 26. In an open letter to Ukrainian Interior Minister Yuri Smirnov, Svistunov expressed indignation at the absence of an adequate response to numerous examples of "rowdy conduct of thugs from among Ukrainian nationalist structures" against activists of the Ukrainian Russian Movement. Svistunov asked Smirnov to investigate one particular incident on July 21 in the city of Uzhgorod, where a group of youngsters attacked Alexander Yeshmakov and his brother in the backyard of their house. Soon, a squad of policemen arrived on the scene and, according to Svistunov, proceeded to beat up the Yeshmakov brothers. Alexander Yeshmakov is chairman of the Trans-Carpathian branch of the Ukrainian Russian Movement.

FRANCE TO BAN FAR-RIGHT GROUP. The French government has begun procedures to outlaw the far-right group Radical Unity frequented by a man who is accused of firing at President Jacques Chirac on the Champs Elysee two weeks ago, an Interior Ministry official told news agencies on July 28. The official explained that the government intends to make use of a law predating World War II to ban Radical Unity, an umbrella organization of several extremist movements founded in 1998, at the time when the far-right National Front headed by Jean-Marie Le Pen split in two. The group denies that it is a paramilitary organization and denies any involvement with the would-be assassin Maxime Brunerie, 25, who, according to witnesses, pulled a .22 rifle and fired at Chirac taking part in a Bastille Day parade commemorating the 1789 revolution. Brunerie, who was quickly wrestled to the ground, is in a mental hospital undergoing tests to determine whether he is fit to appear in a trial.

Interior Ministry officials explained that the law they plan to apply is intended to help thwart the rise of extremist combat groups and militias, but it may be extended to groups suspected of inciting "discrimination, hatred or racial violence.'' Several anti-racist and human rights groups had urged Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy to ban Radical Unity and have promptly welcomed the move. They also warned that even if banned, Radical Unity could continue to exist in clandestine ways.

ANTISEMITISM IS NOT THE CAUSE OF ROME CEMETERY DESECRATION, POLICE SAY. On July 30, Italian police told the press that they had arrested a disgruntled former cemetery worker and were investigating five others who might be responsible for the desecration of Jewish tombstones in a Rome cemetery on July 18. The police said the arrest vindicated their suspicion that a labor dispute - and not antisemitism -- was behind the attack in the Verano cemetery, where headstones were smashed and Star of David medallions were torn off gravestones with Hebrew writing. The worker arrested is accused of "extortion, slander, and profanation of graves." Those being investigated include the cemetery's deputy director. While Italian authorities talk about "dozens of graves" or "about 30" desecrated, Reuters uses the figure of "about 50."

Franco Gabrielli of Italy's anti-terrorism police was quoted as saying that the suspected antisemitic motive behind the desecrations has proved wrong. Investigators said the workers were angry that the city had assigned the municipal sanitation company to keep the cemetery tidy, effectively putting them out of work.

Local observers point out that only Jewish graves were vandalized and speculate that the objective might have been to gain maximum media attention. Citing "sources close to the investigation," news agencies mention that in previous desecrations of Jewish cemeteries in Italy, attackers sprayed Nazi symbols on the stones, but in this case they left behind no graffiti.

* * * QUOTE OF THE WEEK * * * "It has become fashionable to be a skinhead in Russia," Vyacheslav Likhachev, author of the book "Nazism in Russia," told Reuters. "Skinheads are only part of the problem. What is more important is a widespread xenophobia in society, that their actions find understanding rather than condemnation."

PORTRAIT OF A MIDDLE-CLASS SKINHEAD
A Journalistic Coup

A Reuters reporter in Moscow named Gleb Bryanski has scored a journalistic coup by interviewing a local skinhead who is an apparently normal young man of middle-class origins and with normal middle-class ambitions. He is identified as one of the estimated 7,000 skinheads in Russia's capital city, described as a "fast-growing group," whose number is "said to have doubled" over the past year.

His appeal to a journalist is not limited to his willingness to spend time with a representative of the mass media, a foreign news agency at that. He is a little different, and he knows how to stress that difference when he criticizes the news media for portraying skinheads as "'dumbheads' who cannot string two words together." Provocatively, he adds as he sips beer: "Do I look like one?"

Bryanski's skinhead, whom he calls "Viktor" in a dispatch filed on July 29, is 16 years of age and has just graduated from a Moscow school described as "prestigious." His summer job is that of a computer systems administrator. His "mainstream" political views feature a preference for President Vladimir Putin and a dislike of the communists.

But, the report adds, "Viktor" does wear "heavy Dr Martens boots, Nazi badges, and his fists are covered with scars from street fights." And, presumably, his head is shaven or close-cropped like those of his fellow skinheads.

The reporter's bland news-agency prose describes "Viktor" as spending his evenings with his "skinhead pals in their neighborhood," drinking beer, and listening to "Western skinhead bands or their Russian copycats." Without a change in tone, the reporter notes that after such an evening, he and his fellow-skinheads "go out hunting for victims -- dark-skinned traders from the former Soviet republics, African students, Afghan refugees, South Asian guest workers."

Next comes a chilling quote from "Viktor" that shows that he is no "moderate," a favorite journalistic word often applied to those who consent to be interviewed by a representative of the news media and do not misbehave. "Our neighborhood has already been cleaned of this filth," he is quoted as saying. "We have beaten them all. God help any foreigner that hangs around on his own where we live."

The portrait closes with a reference to "Viktor's" grandfather who, like others in his generation, fought the Nazis, yet, “Victor” says, agrees with his grandson on some things. "Viktor" says: "He doesn't like my badges but he agrees with me about the foreigners."

The problem is not that a journalist found a way to "humanize" a little-known and much-feared segment of society, a standard journalistic objective that is supposed to stand in contrast with a politician's or an ideologue's urge to "demonize" them. The problem is that an otherwise apparently "normal" young person who, it so happens, is studying law finds it perfectly acceptable - if not fashionable -- to hate immigrants, especially from former Soviet republics, to wear Nazi symbols, and to engage in street fights with foreigners, usually vastly outnumbering them.
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