Volume 6, Number 39
Friday, November 10, 2006

BIGOTRY MONITOR

A Weekly Human Rights Newsletter on Antisemitism, Xenophobia, and Religious 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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During the Soviet era, analysts interpreted the state of play in the Kremlin based on the lineup of leaders on the Red Square reviewing stand on November 7, the anniversary of the 1917 Bolshevik Revolution, and parsed the dozens of slogans issued for the day. But last year the number one state holiday shifted to November 4, declared by President Vladimir Putin as National Unity Day, and analysts now focus on the rallies of political groupings on that day. Officially sanctioned celebratory events were held in 136 towns and cities, with more than 150,000 people taking part, and more than 25,000 police officers and Internal Troops deployed to maintain order, Interfax reported.

Last year, the far right captured the front pages by shouting “Heil Hitler” and displaying swastikas. This year the nationalist right and far right failed to turn the celebration into their day, thanks to the authorities banning Nazi symbols and salutes and announcing bans on far right marches. “In some places, hooligans have made attempts to break through to sites of mass events,” said First Deputy Interior Minister Alexander Chekalin. “Offenders and persons in a state of intoxication have been brought to police stations and will be prosecuted.” This second celebration of National Unity Day officially emphasized the importance of the Russian language. But it has also become clear that the holiday was not only a replacement of the Bolshevik anniversary but the beginning of a restoration of the role of the icon of the Kazan Mother of God, sacred to the Orthodox Church.

1. ULTRANATIONALISTS CHARGE ANTI-RUSSIAN DISCRIMINATION. As the ultranationalists gathered in Moscow, a protester hit a female Russian journalist several times in the face, RIA Novosti reported. A suspect was arrested. Quoting police sources, the news agency said that more than 200 protesters were detained on their way to the rally. Organizers charged that police beat protesters while detaining them.

Stressing “the schisms” of Russian society, “The Los Angeles Times” collected comments by ultranationalist demonstrators who numbered 4,000 and shouted “Russia for Russians” as well as antisemitic slogans. (Other news media estimates cited attendance figures of 1,000 – both for the ultranationalist and the anti-fascist rallies.) The newspaper quoted a 16-year-old boy, who gave his name as “Igor the Devil” and complained about police detentions of protesters. “It is disgusting how the Russian police beat us and put us in jail for the fact that we say loudly that we are Russians,” he was quoted as saying. “If Jews or Muslims or others get together and do something publicly, it is OK. When Russians get together it is a crime. My friends and I will change the situation when we get a little older. Just wait and you will see. We will give our country back to the Russians.” The L.A. “Times” also quoted engineer Alexander Vdovin, 34, as having said that even though Putin was Russian, he was beholden to wealthy Jewish businessmen. Vdovin said: “This holiday gives us a possibility to march and rally as representatives of the subjugated and humiliated Russian majority in our own country.”

Sergei Baburin, a member of the State Duma who heads the People's Will party, told the rally that former President Boris Yeltsin's ethnically neutral concept “Russian citizen” constituted a “weapon” used against ethnic Russians (Russkie). “Today we're saying that we are Russian [Russkie] people, and the future of Europe, and the future of the world, depends on Russians,” Baburin declared. “Glory to Russia!”

In St. Petersburg, police used tear gas to break up a fistfight on the city's main street that involved about 200 ultranationalist marchers and a group of leftist activists, Interfax reported. In the Siberian city of Novosibirsk, police detained for questioning about 10 participants in a banned march, according to Interfax.

According to Sova Information-Analytical Center's Alexander Verkhovsky, this year's “Russian March” signified “no progress” for the ultranationalist cause. “There were fewer participants this year than in last year's march, and city authorities overall did a good job controlling the situation,” he said.

2. WE ARE THE TRUE PATRIOTS, ANTI-FASCISTS SAY. At the anti-fascist rally, speakers disputed the nationalists’ assertions that they were the true Russian patriots. “It is a great pity that patriotic slogans and ideas were hijacked by people who have nothing in common with patriotism,” Nikita Belykh, leader of the Union of Right Forces party, told the rally. “I'm Russian, and I'm proud to be Russian. I want my Georgian friends to be proud to be Georgians. I want all people to be proud of their nationality. Those people who say they are patriots and marching at these rallies are not patriots.” Belykh said that the ultranationalist marchers charge that Russians face subjugation but in fact they promote xenophobia. “It's impossible to build patriotism on an inferiority complex,” he noted. “I'm sure that soon we'll be able to say, 'Glory to Russia,' understanding that it's not a nationalistic slogan… Glory to Russia!”

Sergei Mitrokhin, deputy head of the liberal Yabloko party, said that “fascism is against our country because it breeds inter-ethnic hostility.” He pointed out how Serbian nationalism had played a key role in the breakup of Yugoslavia. “We are Russian patriots,” Mitrokhin declared. “We will not allow this. Fascists, get out of Russia!”

According to “The Moscow Times,” the crowd at the anti-fascist rally was made up of young liberals and old-fashioned democrats. Many wore homemade labels that read, “I am a Georgian”; others carried pictures of murdered journalist Anna Politkovskaya. In the newspaper’s estimate, the numbers were much lower than at an anti-fascist march last year, held in response to the nationalists’ “Russian March.” “There aren't many of us. If there are 4,000 fascists, then there should be a minimum of 400,000 anti-fascists in a city of 12 million,” said Anatoly Rekant, 72, from Civil Society, a civil rights group. “The small numbers created a sense of unease among the demonstrators who were warned not to walk to the metro alone after the meeting,” “The Moscow Times” report concluded.

3. PUTIN STRESSES PATRIOTISM AND UNITY. At a Kremlin reception marking the holiday, President Vladimir Putin pointed out that before last year’s declaration, Russia had no official holidays commemorating pre-Soviet history. “For modern Russia, National Unity Day is a holiday of the entire society, a day when we pay tribute to centuries-old traditions of patriotism, accord, and unity of the nation,” Putin said, addressing an audience that included teachers of Russian language and literature as well as prominent Russians living abroad. State TV emphasized Putin’s statement: “Russia today is open to all who identify themselves with her destiny.” He presented medals to linguists and expressed his appreciation to academics, art critics, and both Russian and foreign publishers of Russian-language publications. Putin declared 2007 the Year of the Russian Language. Analysts also noted an official emphasis on religious unity, with leaders of Russia's main faiths -- Orthodox Christianity, Islam, and Judaism – asked to explain the holiday’s significance.

Officials and commentators discussed at great length that the date November 4 was chosen last year because it marks Russia’s first successful act of resistance to foreign rule: the Polish-Lithuanian control of Moscow in 1612 and the seizure of Moscow’s Kitai-Gorod by Russian heroes Prince Dmitry Pozharsky and Kuzma Minin. “The emphasis of this ideology gives the Putin administration credit for bringing an end to the anarchy and chaos of the Yeltsin era, our very own modern day Time of Troubles, while also rebutting Western aggressors,” wrote in the magazine “Russia Profile” Georgy Bovt.

State TV adopted a new approach. Unlike last year, the main state channels did not ignore the activities of ultranationalists. The official Rossiya (RTV) prime-time news on November 4 devoted a separate report to explaining that the ban on the radical nationalists was necessary because their leaders use language that was “chauvinistic and was deemed to sow ethnic discord.” The report noted the arrests of “instigators of unsanctioned rallies” and “hooligan elements” and ended by citing Moscow Mayor Yuriy Luzhkov’s pledge not to allow “fascism or chauvinism” in his city.

4. ORTHODOX PATRIARCH RECALLS ROLE OF ‘MIRACLE-WORKING ICON.’ Patriarch Alexy II of Moscow and All Russia congratulated Russian citizens on the two holidays: the National Unity Day and the religious one of the icon of the Kazan Mother of God. In a service at the Kazan Cathedral built in the 17th century by Prince Dmitry Pozharsky in honor of the victory over Polish and Lithuanian invaders, the patriarch declared National Unity Day a reminder of “the tragic events on our land when there was question if Russia will be or not,” he said. Alexy II stressed the significance of the state holiday coinciding with the religious one. “The miracle-working icon of the Kazan Mother of God was taken by the volunteer army who came to the capital in order to liberate it from foreign invaders,” Alexy II said, referring to the events of 1612.

The patriarch gave President Putin a boost by declaring that “this day should be our common day because the state began reviving after the Time of Troubles.” The patriarch said he is convinced that “it is unity that may facilitate Russia's salvation. Unity is our force. When we are united, God is with us.”

PERSECUTION OF GEORGIANS CONDEMNED. On November 8, Russia's main state human rights body condemned a wave of “selective persecution” against Georgians in Russia and criticized illegal detentions and deportations of Georgians by Russian authorities, RIA Novosti reported. The clampdown followed tensions that erupted after Georgia’s detention of Russian officers on espionage charges and led to a Kremlin decision to cut off all links with the former Soviet republic.

The statement by the Civil Society Institutions and Human Rights Council under the President of the Russian Federation, headed by Ella Pamfilova, was critical of what was a concerted action by different parts of the government. Her statement followed a little-noticed comment by President Vladimir Putin during a televised Q&A session on October 25: “I cannot approve of selective actions on ethnic grounds. On the contrary, I call on law enforcement agencies to abstain from such actions, and I consider them inadmissible.” But then Putin found a way to minimize his government’s reactions. He said that anti-crime measures must be conducted constantly but the actions taken against Georgian criminals happened to stand out because of the attention the diplomatic row attracted. He said Russian authorities deported 15,300 illegal immigrants from one of the former Soviet republics, about 13,400 people from another – and only 5,000 illegal immigrants from Georgia. In conclusion, Putin declared: “Consequently, talking about selective actions against Georgians is incorrect and untrue.”

The statement by Pamfilova’s council was sharply worded. It characterized the persecution of the Georgians as “incompatible with the constitutional principles of a state of law” and representing “unacceptable discrimination, and cannot be seen as lawful method of combating illegal migration.” The conclusion demanded action: “We call on the Russian authorities to immediately take the necessary measures to restore legality, humanitarian principles, and respect for rights and liberties with regard to all residents of our country.”

UCSJ ALARMED BY TREATMENT OF PRISONER STOMAKHIN. In a letter addressed earlier this month to Judge Yuri Kolmogorov of the Butyrski Regional Court in Moscow, the Union of Councils for Jews in the Former Soviet Union (UCSJ) expressed its concern about Boris Stomakhin’s case now pending in that court. Stomakhin is accused of publishing four articles in his newspaper “Radical Policy” in 2000-2004 about the Chechen war that were not in accordance with the official line. Though the articles did not inspire any inter-ethnic or inter-religious hatred, he was accused of violating articles 280 and 282 of the Russian Criminal Code.

The letter, signed by UCSJ National Director Micah H. Naftalin and Director for Human Rights Bureaus Leonid Stonov, suggested that the case “may have involved several procedural and human rights violations of the Russian Criminal-Procedure Code.” For instance, human rights activists Sergey Grigoriants and Valeria Novodvorskaya were not allowed to serve as Stomakhin’s public defenders; many people, including his mother Regina, were not permitted to be in the hearing hall. Nor did Stomakhin receive appropriate medical attention in jail. The letter pointed out that “even now, in spite of the fact that he has broken a vertebrae (he ‘fell out’ of the window of his 4th floor apartment during his arrest) and also has several chronic diseases, his urgent medical needs are not being met.” The letter expressed concern that “the court improperly made humiliating references to Stomakhin’s Jewish ethnicity.”

The UCSJ letter to the judge voiced alarm that Stomakhin “is being held in confinement during the recess period of the trial,” even though he does not present the slightest threat to society. The letter cited international human rights standards and urged the court to “release him on his own cognizance pending the continuation of the trial” and permit Stomakhin to choose his own public defenders.

ETHNIC VIOLENCE IN KALMYKIA. More than 100 police were dispatched to a village in Kalmykia in response to fighting that left one person dead and another injured, according to media reports last week. Citing prosecutors, Interfax reported that a man from Dagestan stabbed two 16-year-old local boys in a fight at a disco in the village of Vorobyovka and killed one of them. Later, a group of young men, armed with a hunting rifle, went to a farm where the Dagestani man -- arrested on suspicion of murder -- had been living and shot at the proprietor, injuring him, Ekho Moskvy reported. The suspected shooter was detained.

RACISTS ATTACK FAMOUS FILM DIRECTOR. Racists attacked a well-known Russian film director in a St. Petersburg suburb, according to a November 8 report on the web site of the national daily “Vremya Novostey.” On October 29, Yuri Mamin, known in the West for his 1994 film “Window to Paris,” was on his way to visit a friend when three young men surrounded him. One of them reportedly said, “You aren’t one of us, you’re not a Russian!” They then beat him to the ground and hit him on the head with broken bottles before he managed to scream enough to scare them away. After he received medical attention, Mamin complained, police did not show up at the hospital to take his report. But police claim that they were informed of the attack but were given an incorrect name for the victim and thus were unable to find him.

JEWISH CENTER FIREBOMBED. Two Molotov cocktails were thrown through the windows of a Jewish cultural center in Surgut, Russia (Khanty-Mansy Autonomous Region), according to a November 7 report by the Russian Jewish news service AEN. The attack took place on the evening of November 4. Nobody was injured and the community's Torah scroll was undamaged. Police are investigating the incident. Police have recommended that Jews refrain from staying at the center late at night and warned them to remain alert to potential attacks in the future.

KIEV SKINHEADS MURDER NIGERIAN. Five young men who appeared to be skinheads murdered a Nigerian citizen in Kiev, according to Vyacheslav Likhacyov, UCSJ's Kiev monitor. Godknows Mievi, 44, who lived for many years in Ukraine, was killed on October 25 near the Poznyaki metro station. Eyewitnesses reported that the attackers shouted racist slogans. Mievi, who is survived by a Ukrainian wife and a son, died of knife wounds before police arrived. He had a Ph.D. and worked for an oil company in the city. The November 1Ukraine edition of the Russian daily “Kommersant” added that Mievi's assailants shouted, “We will save Ukraine from these freaks!” as they stabbed him. As they did not bother robbing him of the $400 he had in his possession, the murder was most likely a hate crime. A suspect from the Ukraine branch of the Russian extremist movement against illegal immigration has been arrested.

LVIV HOLOCAUST MEMORIAL VANDALIZED. A menorah that is part of a Holocaust memorial in Lviv, Ukraine was splattered with white paint, according to a report by UCSJ’s local monitor. Meanwhile in Kiev, police have detained a 23-year-old resident of the region in connection with the vandalism of the Babi Yar memorial in July. The memorial, set up to commemorate victims of the Nazis who were shot and dumped by the thousands in a nearby canyon, was destroyed in what is believed to be an antisemitic hate crime. The suspect, who admitted to the crime after being charged with an unrelated robbery offense, claims that “hooliganistic impulses” rather than animosity toward Jews motivated him. In the post-Soviet history of Ukraine, there has been only one successful hate crimes prosecution, and even in that case (the trial of several neo-Nazis who attacked a synagogue in Kiev while screaming “Death to the Yids,”) the chief organizer was let out of prison early.

MUSLIMS SEEK BOTH VICTIMHOOD AND DOMINATION, SAYS BISHOP. A senior Anglican bishop, Michael Nazir-Ali of Rochester, England, has accused many Muslims of being guilty of double standards in their view of the world. In an interview published in the most recent “Sunday Times,” he charged some Muslims with a “dual psychology” in which they sought “victimhood and domination.” Nazir-Ali argued that it would never be possible to satisfy all of the demands made by Muslims because “their complaint often boils down to the position that it is always right to intervene when Muslims are victims... and always wrong when Muslims are the oppressors or terrorists.” He compared Bosnia and Kosovo, where Muslims were oppressed, with the rule of the Taliban in Afghanistan, where Muslims were the oppressors. The bishop, whose father converted from Islam, added: “Given the world view that has given rise to such grievances, there can never be sufficient appeasement and new demands will continue to be made.” The Muslim Council of Britain said the comments were “not very helpful.”

* * * QUOTE OF THE WEEK, EUROPE’S RUSSIA DILEMMA * * * “On the one hand, Europe has adopted a moralistic and superior tone with Russia. NGOs and parliaments across the bloc periodically complain about receding democratic norms, and the mistreatment of neighbor states (and potential NATO members) Georgia and Ukraine,” wrote Raffaello Pantucci, associate at the International Institute for Strategic Studies in London, for the independent web site EUObserver.com dated November 7. “On the other hand, European nations embrace Russian investment, attempt to pour money into the country, and buy strategic resources; often fighting with each other to secure deals with the Kremlin.”

RUSSIAN WRITER PROJECTS THE RISE OF A NEW EMPIRE
Aleksandr Prokhanov Blends Nostalgia and Futurology, Rightist and Leftist Fantasies

In a new book by prominent Russian writer Aleksandr Prokhanov, a dynamic Russian leader known as the “Emperor of the Polar Star” comes to power after winning a war against proud mountain-dwellers in the Caucasus, according to a review by Victor Yasmann for Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty. Publisher of the anti-Western weekly “Zavtra,” Prokhanov is a leading intellectual figure on Russia’s antisemitic and anti-Western far right. His ideas, once put down as on the fringe, are becoming mainstream. His new book, titled “Symphony of the Fifth Empire,” calls on Russia's elite, whether liberals or patriots, to unite and build a Eurasian empire, an heir to both the Soviet Union and Tsarist Russia. Prokhanov called his book, reportedly already translated into a number of languages, the most important in his life.

“One can see signs of emerging empire almost everywhere,” Prokhanov writes. “In events such as the building of new types of ships and submarines... launching the new ‘Bulova’ missile... or the construction of the North European Gas Pipeline.” He is ebullient about the state-controlled gas monopoly, Gazprom: “It gathers together Russia, by merging companies, connecting pipelines, extending its steel tentacles to the terminals of St. Petersburg and Nakhodka, laying [new pipeline] tracks at the bottom of the Baltic Sea and to China and stitching together the tissue of the former Soviet republics.”

Commentator Yasmann is certain that the book will sell well. He recalls Prokhanov's best-selling novel published in 2002, “Mr. Gexogen,” a thinly fictionalized account that maintains that the 1999 apartment-block explosions in Moscow and other cities, the renewal of fighting in Chechnya, and Vladimir Putin’s rise to the presidency were all the results of a conspiracy by KGB veterans. “Mr. Gexogen” won the prestigious National Bestseller Prize. Prokhanov, previously a fringe figure largely ignored by the mainstream media, became a pundit on national television channels and Ekho Moskvy radio.

Yasmann notes that Nikita Mikhalkov, the Oscar-winning filmmaker known for his pro-imperial views, presided over the launch of Prokhanov's new book on October 24. The event received prime-time coverage on the state-controlled Channel One and RTR TV networks and in the semi-official “Rossiyskaya gazeta.” Yasmann points out that politicians from across the political spectrum attended, including some from the liberal Union of Rightist Forces and the Kremlin’s Unified Russia party, as well as Vladimir Zhirinovsky of the Liberal Democratic Party and Sergei Glaziyev of the nationalist Motherland. According to Prokhanov, Russia will become a superstate, which he calls the “fifth empire” of Russian history, and the revival has begun under President Putin.

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