ETHNIC PERSECUTION OF CHECHENS IN THE RUSSIAN FEDERATION:
A UCSJ SPECIAL REPORT
JULY 2001
Introduction
Over the last several years, Chechens have been subjected to a high degree of hostility, discrimination and violence throughout the Russian Federation. Racist sentiment toward all dark-skinned people from the Caucasus—a group that includes Georgians, Azeris, Armenians, Chechens and numerous other ethnic groups—is common, as is a strong anti-Moslem bias, reflected in numerous attempts to prevent the building of mosques reported below. However, the two wars in Chechnya have created especially intense animosity specifically toward Chechens.
This problem is not confined to any one region of Russia. Official and grass-roots discrimination and mistreatment of Chechens (and others from the Caucasus) occur throughout the country. The incidents detailed below, organized by region, took place in 26 of Russia's regions since 1998 and probably represent the proverbial tip of the iceberg. The widespread atrocities that the Russian military continues to commit against Chechen civilians have been extensively reported by other human rights organizations and therefore will not be covered here.1
The official tolerance of, if not outright support for, discrimination against Chechens makes their position in Russia especially precarious, as they cannot necessarily count on the state for protection. In fact, government officials themselves at times incite hatred against Chechens through racist statements in the media that demonize the entire Chechen people as enemies of the state. Although he has stated that the current war in Chechnya is not directed at the entire Chechen people, President Putin's infamous promise to "Waste the [Chechen] terrorists, even in the outhouse" was greeted with joy by Russia's hate groups, who thrive on the sense of impunity that the government's anti-Chechen witch hunt has created. The dangerous implications for other unpopular ethnic and religious minority groups are obvious—the Russian state, in alliance with grass roots hate groups, has set a precedent vis a vis the Chechens, thus increasing the probability that other groups, including Jews, may face similar persecution in the future.
Bryansk
According to The Human Rights Association, the Bryansk police single out people from the Caucasus and Central Asia for passport checks. This practice was especially widespread during the "Whirlwind-Anti-Terror" operation launched in reaction to the 1999 apartment bombings in Moscow and elsewhere. Authorities in the Bezhitsky
1 A translation of the Russian human rights group Memorial's report on atrocities in Chechnya can be found on UCSJ's web site at: http://www.fsumonitor.com/MHG_99/Chechnya.shtml
district of the city of Bryansk forced all people from the Caucasus to apply to the Department of Visas and Registration (OVIR) for permission to temporarily reside in the city, even if they were Russian citizens.1
Chelyabinsk
On July 26, 2000 Gennady Rubin, the leader of the Chabad-Lubavitch Jewish community in Magnitogorsk, was arrested on possibly trumped up charges of embezzlement. Mr. Rubin claimed that his arrest was motivated by a rival businessman with close ties to the local FSB (the successor to the KGB), which allegedly used the threat of arrest to pressure Mr. Rubin and his business partners to give up control over company shares. When one of Mr. Rubin's partners, a Muslim from the Caucasus, was also arrested in connection with the case, the prosecutor in charge allegedly remarked, "Good, we need a Caucasian for this case."2
Irkutsk
In January 2000, the local newspaper Vostochno-Sibirskaya Pravda reported that local Cossacks were being used to "maintain public order," guard city property, and provide security for a local Strategic Rocket Forces unit. Three hundred and twenty Cossacks were hired to work in Irkutsk Oblast prisons.3 A local academic who has written about hostile attitudes in Irkutsk towards people from the Caucasus reports that:
Several times in recent years there have been pogroms in the Central Market. They were initiated by Cossacks at the beginning of the formation of that movement and former paratroopers marking their professional holiday.4 For several years already, the market closes on that day for a `cleaning day.'5
Xenophobic feelings towards people from the Caucasus are especially incited by extremist organizations from the "national-patriotic" camp, "the best organized and largest of which are the Cossacks.":
Atamans and ordinary Cossacks don't hide their anti-Caucasian sentiments, but recently they prefer not to express them openly, especially not officially. The reason for this self-restraint is the desire not to spoil relations with the authorities at a time when they are dependent on them for the resolution of extremely important material issues like land allocations, tax benefits and [official] status.6
The "Vernost" ("Fidelity") Russian National-Patriotic Union publishes in Irkutsk the racist newspaper Russky Vostok, which calls for, "a cleansing of the Russian Land from
1 The Human Rights Association, "Human Rights in the Regions of the Russian Federation: 1999," Moscow Helsinki Group, Volume 4, 88.
2 Jewish Telegraphic Agency, July 30, 2000; UCSJ sources.
3 Vostochno-Sibirskaya Pravda, January 26, 2000.
4 "Paratroopers' Day" 2000 was also marred by attacks on people from the Caucasus in Moscow. See Moscow section below.
5 "Kavkaztsy v Irkutske: Konfliktogennaya diaspora," in "Neterpimost v Rossii: Starie i Novie Fobii," Moscow Carnegie Center, 1999, 126.
6 Ibid., 127.
Caucasian wanderers so that the appearance of a Caucasian on Russian streets will cause no less surprise than the appearance of someone from Papua." The publisher of Russky Vostok, A. Tupik, is a deputy in the regional legislature, having won election by a significant margin. Several candidates with similar views hold seats in the Irkutsk city legislature.1
A heavily armed extremist group called "The Liberation Movement of Siberia," which called for the deportation of people from the Caucasus, was broken up by police a few years ago. The group allegedly committed several murders and engaged in organized crime, operating under a strict hierarchy.2
In 1999, the Moscow Carnegie Center published a book on intolerance in Russia entitled "Neterpimost v Rossii: Starie i Novie Fobii"("Intolerance in Russia: Old and New Phobias.") The book contained a chapter on prejudice against people from the Caucasus in Irkutsk Oblast by Viktor Dyatlov, a professor at Irkutsk State University. Dyatlov describes a perception of people from the Caucasus common not only in Irkutsk, but throughout the country:
In recent years, Caucasians have obtained a clearly expressed criminal reputation. In the eyes of a significant part of the population, perhaps the majority, they have become a symbol of criminal chaos. Almost the entire Irkutsk press reflects and strengthens this impression— from the liberal and not at all xenophobic Sovetsky Molodyozh, to the moderate-conservative, official Vostochno-Sibirskaya Pravda, and the extremist national-patriotic Russky Vostok. No less than 2/3 of articles on them in these papers portray Caucasians in this way.3
However, these perceptions are not borne out by crime statistics:
… over the course of nine months in 1996, in Irkutsk there were 12,311 crimes, and only 37 by `citizens of the Near Abroad' (three by Azerbaijanis, two by Armenians, and one by a Georgian). In the last few years, between 110-120 emigrants from former Soviet republics were brought to justice, including several dozen from the Caucasus.4
Irkutsk residents often demand that the city administration expel people from the Caucasus from the markets, where they have established a strong presence, or at least impose a quota on them.5
Ivanovo
In 1999, the Ivanovo Regional Human Rights Society, a local NGO, reported:
Over the last few years there has been a rise in hatred towards people of non-Slavic ethnicity among the population. For several years already, incidents of foreign students being beaten,
1 Ibid., 128-129.
2 Ibid., 128.
3 Ibid., 119.
4 Ibid., 120.
5 Ibid., 123.
especially members of colored races, have not stopped. The authorities do practically nothing to correct the situation.1
In late September 1999, the local newspaper Khronometer published a survey of Ivanovo residents who were asked what should be done about the wave of terrorist bombings that killed over 200 Russians earlier that month. Out of the 28 people questioned, 11 answered that all Chechens should be expelled from Russia. Only two answered that the Russian government should negotiate a solution with the Chechen government. Vasily Nikonov, 69, answered:
L.K., a 28 year old businessman, answered:
In my opinion, this Chechnya should have been destroyed a long time ago. It's such a small state, but the evil that comes from it makes it like a monster. All should be liquidated, both soldiers and civilians…2
Kabardino-Balkyria Republic
Children of Chechen refugees are often denied admissions to public schools. 3
Republic of Kalmykia
A local human rights NGO reported that on January 3, 2000 a massive fight in which 100 people participated took place in the village of Sadovy between Chechens and local inhabitants. The next day, around 1,500 people gathered in the village's main square to demand the deportation of Chechens from the village. A compromise resolution was passed to demand that the authorities restrict the settlement of Chechens in the region.4
Kaluga
The Obninsk Regional Human Rights Group, in its 1998 report, indicated that acts of xenophobia violence are not uncommon in the region. For example, in 1998 on Border Guard Day, a member of the Obninsk Regional Human Rights Group witnessed a fight started by former Border Guards against street vendors from the Caucasus. This took place in Obninsk on Kurchatov Street, near
Kamchatka
In August 2000, a newspaper reported that in Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky the local branch of ultra-nationalist Vladimir Zhirinovsky's LDPR and an organization called the Slavic National Patriotic Union backed a referendum to halt the construction of a mosque for the 30,000 Muslims who live in the city. The leader of the Slavic National Patriotic Union reportedly called the construction project "a direct insult to the religious and civic feelings of the Slavic population" and warned that, "With a mosque built here, the flow of Muslims to Kamchatka will increase. Considering their mindset, they won't let us live normally here." The head of the local Russian Orthodox diocese also reportedly supports the referendum, asserting that Kamchatka is a traditionally Orthodox region, and that the mosque will have few parishioners. The chairman of the Muslim Communities Union reported that the city had given permission to build the mosque in 1993, and that $53,000 had already been invested in building it. Reportedly, his car was blown up in 1999 and police raided his offices without a warrant.1
On April 8, 2001 the governor of Kamchatka Oblast, Mikhail Mashkovtsev, reportedly attended a rally organized by the local branch of the neo-Nazi party Russian National Unity (RNU). The rally, called to express support for accused Russian war criminal Colonel Yuri Budanov, was held on Theater Square in the regional capital Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky. Governor Mashkovtsev, who spoke in support of Colonel Budanov, reportedly signed a resolution in support of Colonel Budanov which read, in part: "We, the people of Kamchatka Oblast, express our decisive protest against the shameful trial of Colonel Yuri Budanov… Seeing this trial as an ideological intervention by the enemies of Russia, we demand that Yuri Budanov be immediately released from custody." Colonel Budanov is charged with raping and murdering a Chechen girl.
The head of the local branch of the RNU, Sergey Grishin, added, "...America, Israel and the whole NATO bloc and its minions are warring against Russia through the arms of the Chechen bandits." 2
Republic of Karelia
In September 2000, a local newspaper reported that over the past two years there were at least two mass assaults on traders from the Caucasus by unidentified young men.3
Republic of Komi
On September 14, 1999 the press service of the local MVD (Ministry of Internal Affairs) issued the following appeal to citizens: "If emigrants from the Caucasus come to live near
1 The Moscow Times, August 1, 2000.
2 Part-Inform News Agency, April 18, 2001.
3 Severny Kurier, September 26, 2000.
you, or if such people fall within your field of vision, and their activities are questionable, inform law enforcement representatives about it."1
Kurgan
The local human rights NGO "For Fair Elections" reports:
The spirit of nationalism is literally fed by the regional media. Kurgan television transmits insulting references against people from the Caucasus, spoken on a day to day level. In order to create the impression that all crime is connected to people from the Caucasus and Muslims, the lexical stamps of `criminals of Caucasian nationality' and `Islamic terrorists' are widely used, notwithstanding the special recommendation of the Federal Russian Information Center not to use those terms.2
Further, when residents of a predominantly Bashkir village requested permission to start teaching the Bashkir language in local schools, a representative of the regional administration allegedly asked, "What, do you want to create a second Chechnya here?"3
Moscow (City)
Moscow has seen what is probably the worst example of official approval of anti-Caucasian and anti-Chechen feelings in all of Russia, as the city's popular mayor, Yuri Luzhkov, has given official sanction to racist attitudes. The fact that anti-Chechen/anti-Caucasian attitudes have been allowed to fester and grow for many years within the seat of the federal government is extremely alarming. In the early 1990's, UCSJ was active in helping Armenians who had fled ethnic cleansing in Baku, Azerbaijan to Moscow, where they were targeted by the police, regularly beaten and threatened with expulsion. Since the first war in Chechnya in 1994, it appears that Chechens have become the #1 target for a similar campaign of terror. The lack of attention and action toward this problem suggests tacit approval for such racist attitudes on the part of the country's leading political figures. Such a conclusion is confirmed in the case of Vladimir Zhirinovsky, head of Russia's ultra-nationalist Liberal-Democratic Party, who, during the 1999 parliamentary elections, called for Russia to be done with its ethnic problem with one stroke and "rake the small peoples out of the soil and destroy them with chlorine."4
In a December 1999 report entitled "For the Motherland," Amnesty International documented the large-scale abuse of ethnic minorities in Moscow. The report found that:
In general, members of ethnic minorities have been particularly vulnerable to possible ill-treatment in police custody in the Russian Federation. Amnesty International has been concerned over the past five years about the apparent pattern of persecution and ill-treatment of members of ethnic minorities, especially those from the Caucasus, by law enforcement officials in Moscow
1 Syktyvkar Memorial, "Human Rights in the Regions of the Russian Federation: 1999," Moscow Helsinki Group, Volume 2, 312.
2 For Fair Elections, "Human Rights in the Regions of the Russian Federation: 1999," Moscow Helsinki Group, Volume 2, 136.
3 Ibid., 149.
4 ORT, December 15, 1999.
… In September [1999] Russian law enforcement officials and local authorities in Moscow and other big cities launched what appeared to be a massive intimidation campaign mainly targeting Chechens and other people from the Caucasus. The Russian authorities claimed that since 15 September they had undertaken an anti-terror operation in Moscow known under the code-name `Whirlwind' (Vikhr), in which 22,000 law enforcement officials took part… Verifying possession of a residence permit or registration appears to be used by the authorities as a pretext to stop any person who appears to be from the Caucasus on the street for an identity check and to subsequently detain them. Reports suggested that up to 20,000 non-Muscovites were rounded up by the Moscow police and more than half of them were refused official registration and a
resident permit. Officials in Moscow stated that some 10,000 non-Muscovites who lacked resident permits and were refused registration, had been expelled from the city.
Amnesty quoted a July 12, 1996 television broadcast of a conversation between Mayor Yuri Luzhkov and a police officer which clearly shows that xenophobic attitudes towards Chechens in Moscow come straight from the top:
Mayor Luzkhov: Now we have to take actions. We have to take all of them out of Moscow. Everyone. The whole diaspora.
Police officer: Well, if you only allow us — I will certainly introduce terror on the streets.
Mayor Yury Luzhkov: Yes. The whole Chechen diaspora — out of here.
Police officer: It's about time we did that, Yury Mikhailovich. You are right — it's about time.
Mayor Yury Luzhkov: We have warned them many times...1
Unfortunately, Mayor Luzhkov's attitude appears to be shared by a majority of Muscovites. In December 1999, a newspaper reported that a study by the Public Opinion Foundation revealed that in one of Moscow's most elite schools, students asked to write their opinions about the war in Chechnya agreed with the statement "No normal people remain in Chechnya, there are only bandits there who must be destroyed." The study also revealed that many youths from well off families held extreme nationalistic views, though they voted for liberal parties because of their economic agendas.2 In August 2000, shortly after a fatal bomb attack on Pushkin Square, a newspaper reported that a poll of Muscovites revealed that 65% wanted all people from the Caucasus deported from
1 Amnesty International - Report - EUR 46/46/99 December 1999 Russia. "Russian Federation: Chechnya. For the Motherland. Reported Grave Breaches of International Humanitarian Law. Persecution of Ethnic Chechens in Moscow." Available on the Internet at: http://www.amnesty.org/ailib/aipub/1999/EUR/44604699.htm
2 Delo, December 3, 1999.
Russia. Eleven percent were prepared to participate in "Anti-Caucasian pogroms."1 A country wide poll that same month by the All-Russia Center for the Study of Public Opinion (VTsIOM) found that anti-Chechen sentiment was increasing in Russia— while two months earlier the number of respondents who felt feelings of hatred or vengeance towards the Chechen people (not just Chechen rebel fighters) was 38%, by August the number had risen to 44%.2 In October 2000, a poll of Moscow teenagers taken by the Youth Institute found that 42% of respondents were ready to "deal with" foreigners, mostly from the Caucasus and Asia, settling in Moscow.3
These bigoted attitudes have manifested themselves in incidences of violence. On May 7, 1998 Assaf Nagiev, an Azerbaijani trader, was stabbed to death at the Luzhniki flea market. His attacker escaped. During his funeral, a crowd of several thousand Azerbaijanis carried Mr. Nagiev's body to the center of Moscow where they clashed with anti-riot troops. The previous month, an assault squad of ten masked policemen burst into the apartment of an Ingush drama student, Amur Amerkhanov. He and two guests were reportedly beaten by police, some of their property was confiscated, and an Ingush flag hanging on the wall was ripped to shreds. At the police station later that night, Mr. Amerkhanov reportedly saw around 30 other Ingush being subjected to degrading treatment and abuse. The police allegedly explained that they were rounding up churkchi, a pejorative term for people from the Caucasus.4
In addition, Russian human rights organizations have criticized the government of Moscow for its discriminatory policies against dark skinned residents from the Caucasus and Central Asia. Police have routinely extorted bribes from members of these minority ethnic groups who have been found to be in violation of the city's restrictive and illegal (according to the Constitutional Court) residency laws. These discriminatory practices have generally been supported by Moscow's Russian population who fear that their relatively prosperous city could be overwhelmed by migrants from politically unstable and economically ruined parts of the former Soviet Union. Long held prejudices against dark skinned Southerners, many of whom are Muslim, also plays a large role in generating support of these discriminatory policies.
On September 14, 1999 the Moscow Times reported that Mayor Yuri Luzkhov had ordered that "special measures" be taken to monitor people from the Caucasus, especially Chechens.5 Police responded by rounding up thousands of ethnic minorities to check their registration. Azerbaijani news services and local community leaders reported that Azerbaijanis were being beaten and deported from the city.6 Hundreds of ethnic minorities managed to avoid detention by paying hefty bribes after the police conducted sweeps of the city's markets.7 UCSJ's Moscow Bureau chief reported that while she was waiting in line to be re-registered, she witnessed police verbally abusing ethnic
1 AiF—Moskva, August 15, 2000.
2 Segodnya, August 28, 2000.
3 Moskovsky Komsomolets, October 26, 2000.
4 Transitions, June 1998.
5 Moscow Times, September 14, 1999.
6 AFP, September 15, 1999.
7 Boston Globe, September 16, 1999.
minorities, including telling them to, "Go back to that s**t hole that you came from." On September 23, Radio Free Europe reported that over 15,000 people were denied re-registration and faced possible expulsion and that over 20,000 Chechens had already left Moscow.1
Also in September 1999, Nezavisimaya Gazeta reported that the well known antisemite and chairman of the Security Committee in the State Duma, Viktor Ilyukhin blamed people from the Caucasus for the bombings and the Moscow authorities for letting over one million of them come to Moscow.2 Dimitry Vasilev, head of the extreme right-wing organization Pamyat, called for greater restrictions on people from the Caucasus during his run for mayor in 1999. Otherwise, he claimed, "by the beginning of the next century Moscow will become a large Islamic/Caucasus center where Russians will only be remembered during history classes."3
The Russian media also plays a role in inciting hatred against people from the Caucasus. In July 2000, a study by Vera Malkova of the Russian Academy of Science's Institute of Ethnology and Anthropology found that the Moscow media over the past several years has had "a distinct tendency to emphasize all that was seen as the worst in different ethnic groups." In general, people from the Caucasus are viewed as "inconvenient guests" who threaten "native Muscovites."4
On November 9, 1999, the first day of Ramadan, 20 FSB agents allegedly broke into the apartment of Supreme Mufti Sheikh Nafigulla Ashira, chairman of the ecclesiastical board of Muslims of the Asiatic part of Russia. FSB agents thoroughly searched the apartment, supposedly looking for explosives. The FSB took the Islamic leader to Lefortovo prison for interrogation, where he met others who attended his mosque. He was quoted as saying that if loyal Russian Muslim leaders like him, who have condemned the actions of the Chechen separatists, are being targeted, then the situation for ordinary Muslims must be terrible.5
Indeed, it is typical that people from the Caucasus are stopped by police on a weekly,
sometimes daily, basis and asked for registration papers. Those who are unregistered must pay bribes or
face possible detention, torture and/or
deportation.6 In September 2000, it was revealed that
Moscow police are required to record the number of Chechens, Georgians and Azeris that they detain, as
well as amounts of money confiscated from them. Critics of the police have long maintained that
there are secret quotas for the number of people from the Caucasus each policeman is supposed to
detain.7
1
2 Nezavisimaya Gazeta, September 14, 1999.
3 "From Materials of Vasilev's Press Conference, December 6-8, 1999." Downloaded from Pamyat's web site in August, 2000.
4 RFE/RL (Un) Civil Societies, July 13, 2000.
5 Nezavisimaya Gazeta—religii, December 22, 1999.
6 The Moscow Times, June 24, 2000.
7 The Moscow Times, September 2, 2000.
In July 2000, federal prosecutors announced that they intended to end Moscow's illegal registration policy.1 By October, however, the efforts of the federal government to bring the Moscow law into line with federal legislation had lost steam, and the Presidential Plenipotentiary for the Central Federal District, Georgi Poltavchenko, told the press that abolishing the registration system would violate the human rights of "the eight and a half million Muscovites who built this city."2 However, on November 3, 2000 the Supreme Court ruled that Mayor Luzkhov's September 13, 1999 directive ordering re-registration for all non-residents within three days was illegal, as was his September 21, 1999 directive to deport all non-registered residents. The city reportedly plans to appeal to the presidium of the Supreme Court. Human rights activist Evgeny Ikhlov, who sued the city to end illegal registration practices, was quoted as saying, "I do not conceal the fact that I am pleased with the court's ruling, since these illegal decisions have given rise to an eruption of xenophobia in Moscow."3
In August 2000, drunken paratroopers attacked a market, intending to "cleanse" Moscow of people from the Caucasus.4
In September 2000, the web site gazetasng.ru reported that several dozen skinheads went hunting on the Metro for people from the Caucasus and started beating them. Police allegedly watched and did nothing.5
On April 20, 2001 (Adolf Hitler's birthday), skinheads attacked minorities throughout the city. One Chechen teenager was stabbed to death near Red Square by skinheads.6
Moscow Oblast
In March 2001, a group of 25 Chechen students were reportedly the victims of a racially motivated attack by the Moscow Oblast police. Early in the morning of March 28, police forces allegedly raided the Chechens' dormitory rooms, dragged the students from their beds at gunpoint, set their dogs on one student, and stole some of the students' belongings. The police forced the students to lie on the floor until midday then took the students to the local police station for several hours of interrogation. According to Novaya Gazeta, the same police unit that harassed these students has been involved in similar incidents directed against other ethnic minorities in the past.7
Murmansk
ITAR-TASS reported on February 24, 1999 that the planned construction of a mosque in a prominent part of the city set off a firestorm of protests. Many residents balked at the height of the proposed minaret, which would be higher than the famous WW II monument nicknamed Alyosha. Housewife Irina Volkova was quoted as saying that the mosque would draw pilgrims to the city and, "They will finally make us leave our homes." At a rally held to protest the construction, demonstrators reportedly vowed to destroy the construction site.8 In October 1999, a newspaper reported that the mosque's construction site was burned down. Nobody was arrested, but the local mufti claimed that the arson was connected with demonstrations by local Russian Orthodox believers upset at the construction of a mosque.9
Nizhny Novgorod
In its 1998 report, The Human Rights Society of Nizhny Novgorod reported that the rights of people from the Caucasus and from Asian countries to freely choose a place to live are frequently violated by authorities in the Nizhny Novgorod region.10
In September 1999, the neo-Nazi organization Russian National Unity (RNU) demanded that all people from the Caucasus be expelled from the region. Reportedly, a top police official in the town of Dzerzhinsk expressed a willingness to cooperate with the RNU, although the head of the local Department of Internal Affairs announced that the official was expressing only his personal opinion, not the view of the regional law enforcement agencies as a whole.11
Also in September 1999, the Nizny Novgorod Human Rights Society reported that the newspaper Delo published an article calling for Chechnya to be, "bombed around the clock, without even the smallest interruption…It is worth completely wiping Chechnya from the map of Russia." After the newspaper was warned that this article violated the law against inciting ethnic hatred, the editor of Delo wrote an article blaming the entire Chechen people for terrorist acts against Russia. Nevertheless, prosecutors declined to bring charges against the paper, and instead issued an essentially toothless warning based on the law "On the Media."12
In April 2001, the extremist National Bolshevik Party held a demonstration in the city of
Nizhny Novgorod outside the Information Center of the Society of Russian-Chechen Friendship. During
the demonstration, the National Bolsheviks carried signs with slogans such as "Send the Chechens
to Auschwitz!" and "Purge Chechnya using the Beria Method!" (Beria was Stalin's notorious
secret police chief). Even though statements like this violate Article 282 of the Russian Criminal
Code, which prohibits inciting racial or religious hatred, the police reportedly stood idly by throughout
the demonstration.13
1
2 RFE/RL Russian Regional Report, October 23, 2000.
3 Izvestiya, November 4, 2000.
4 Segodnya, August 3, 2000.
5 Gazetasng.ru, September 5, 2000.
6 NTV, April 21, 2001.
7 Novaya Gazeta, April 9, 2000.
8 ITAR-TASS, February 24, 1999.
9 Russkaya Mysl, October 14, 1999.
10 Nizhny Novgorod Society for Human Rights, 1998 report.
11 Lenta.ru, September 22, 1999.
12 The Nizhny Novgorod Human Rights Society, "The Human Rights Situation in the Russian Federation, 1999," Moscow Helsinki Group, Volume 2, 207-208.
13 Glasnost Caucasus Daily News Service (www.glasnostonline.org) April 6, 2001.
Oryol
In March 1999, Igor Semyonov, an infamous local neo-Nazi leader, was able to officially register his Russia Party in Oryol. At a press conference, Mr. Semyonov said, "The party is gathering strength. We are outnumbered in Oryol only by the Communists." The party's main effort at recruitment is directed at young people, who are offered various free physical and political training sessions by the Russia Party. Young members showed off their skills in hand to hand combat at the end of the press conference. A 17-year-old member named Slavik recalled the Party's attacks on ethnic minorities and pro-democracy activists:
When asked why this extremist party was allowed to register in Oryol, the head of the Oryol Department of Justice, Anatoly Novikov, stated that the organization's charter was in order and that his department had no right to ban it.1
Primorsky Kray
Reuters reported on June 2, 1999 that the city government in Vladivostok (the regional capital) revoked a permit, which had been granted earlier by ex-Mayor Cherepkov, to build a new mosque. Local Russian Orthodox priests had reportedly led a campaign to build the mosque elsewhere because its planned location in the hilly city was higher than a nearby cathedral. A local mufti complained that the Muslim community had already spent money and carried out a ceremony in preparation for the construction and that his group had sent a letter to the Russian government expressing concern that Orthodox Christians were getting preferential treatment.2
Rostov
According to Christians Against Torture and Child Slavery, a local journalist named V. Filippov wrote an article in the local newspaper Molot on December 8, 1998 which called people from the Caucasus Russia's #1 enemy.3
Cossack groups have played a leading role in anti-Chechen and anti-Caucasion demonstrations in Rostov. In October 1999, the Great Don Host, a Cossack formation, appealed to the Russian government to stop the inflow of migrants from the Caucasus.4 In May 2000, Cossacks led 300 residents of the village of Bolshaya Martynovka in a demonstration in front of the local governmental building demanding that people from the Caucasus be expelled from the village.5 In November 2000, a newspaper reported that members of the KPRF, the Russian Orthodox Church and Cossack groups all expressed their fears to Presidential Plenipotentiary Viktor Kazantsev that plans to reopen a mosque in the city of Taganrog would increase the threat of Islamic fundamentalism in the region. Fortunately, the regional government insisted that "Muslim communities have the right to restore mosques" and Interior Minister Vladimir Rushaylo reportedly told the local Russian Orthodox and Islamic leadership to work out a compromise or else federal authorities would intervene.6
The trial of Colonel Yuri Budanov, accused of the rape and murder of an 18 year old Chechen girl, is at the time of writing still taking place in Rostov. According to various media sources, local extremists, including members of the neo-Nazi group Russian National Unity, the National Bolshevik Party and various Cossacks joined Communist demonstrators outside the courthouse to protest the trial. Their chants of "Freedom for Budanov!" were so loud at times that they drowned out the court proceedings. Reportedly, some demonstrators managed (somehow) to break through the triple cordon of security surrounding the court house and burst into the court room shouting "Freedom! Freedom!" before being ushered out by police. Attending the trial in
support of the defendant was General Vladimir Shamanov, Colonel Budanov's former commander in Chechnya who was recently elected governor of the Ulyanovsk region. Human rights groups accuse General Shamanov of being responsible for numerous indiscriminate attacks that led to the needless deaths of many civilians during the conflict.
Saint Petersburg
In July 1998, the St. Petersburg Times reported that Denis Usov, a deputy on the Kupchino neighborhood's district council, distributed leaflets in his district asking residents to report to him the addresses of suspicious looking "people of Caucasian nationality" so that he could turn them over to the police. According to Mr. Usov, "Some crimes, like drug dealing for example, are ethnically specific. Therefore, to fight them without taking ethnicity into account is ineffective." Mr. Usov claimed to have gotten scores of responses from people informing on their neighbors, although the Kupchino police chief stated that the police would not support Mr. Usov's initiative.8 Mr. Usov later ran for a seat on the Petersburg city council and made disparaging remarks about people from the Caucasus while using the free media airtime each candidate received. His comments were the subject of a complaint to the Electoral Commission, which
1 Moskovskie Novosti, March 7-14, 1999.
2 Reuters, June 2, 1999.
3 Christians Against Torture and Child Slavery, 1998 report.
4 Izvestiya, October 5, 1999.
5 The Moscow Times, April 1, 2000.
6 RFE/RL Russian Federation Report, November 15, 2000.
8 St. Petersburg Times, July 21, 1998.
forwarded it to the Prosecutor General's Office for investigation.1 Mr. Usov lost the race but retained his seat on the Kupchino district council.
A poll by the All-Russian Center of the Study of Public Opinion found that between 70-80% of Petersburg residents believed that, "the fewer people from the Caucasus there are in the city, the calmer it is."2 In a different poll, 71.6% of respondents from minority groups reported that they have encountered ethnic animosity,3 and while 39% of Petersburg residents over age 55 harbor animosity towards people of other ethnic groups, that number jumps to 70.3% of residents aged 18-25.4 In addition, the local media incites ethnic hatred towards people from the Caucasus by exploiting ethnic stereotypes.5
Samara
In March 2000, after uncovering several attempts to smuggle drugs and weapons on trains, the Central Volga Interior Ministry's Department of Transportation appealed to citizens to be vigilant in regard to "passengers of Caucasian appearance, travelling in small groups, without baggage, or who are in any way suspicious."6
Saratov
According to the Saratov Human Rights Protection Center, the chairman of the Saratov branch of the Russian National Party (E. A. Kryuchkov) publicly stated, "Let the Georgians live in Georgia, the Dagestanis in Dagestan and the Chechens in Chechnya."7 Even some liberal newspapers publish articles about "the Muslim Threat."8
Stavropol
In October 1998, Keston News Service reported that despite its significant Muslim population, Stavropol is one of the few provincial capitals in the country where Muslims don't have a place of worship. Although authorities registered a Muslim congregation in 1993, they have denied it the right to use the local mosque, built a few years before the 1917 Bolshevik Revolution, and have expelled Muslims from a small room that they rented in 1998 for worship. Yuri Gontar, the vice-speaker of the regional parliament, reportedly told Keston that the mosque could not be used because it is located next to an Orthodox Church, a fact clearly contradicted by a map showing the mosque to be located elsewhere. When asked why the city had no public place for Muslims to worship,
1 St. Petersburg Times, November 17, 1998.
2 "Kavkaztsy v Irkutske: Konfliktogennaya diaspora," in "Neterpimost v Rossii: Starie i Novie Fobii," Moscow Carnegie Center, 1999, 113.
3 Zoya Sikevich, "Ethnicheskaya Nepriyazin v Massovom Soznanii Rossiyan," in "Neterpimost v Rossii: Starie i Novie Fobii," Moscow Carnegie Center, 1999, 104.
4 Ibid., 111.
5 Ibid., 106.
6 Mestnoe Vremya, Gubernatorial Radio news program, March 15, 2000.
7 Saratov, October 15, 1998. Cited in Saratov Human Rights Protection Center, 1998 report.
8 Sovfax, October 5-10, 1998. Cited in Saratov Human Rights Protection Center, 1998 report.
Deputy Gontar reportedly replied that 90% of the population is Russian so there is no need for a mosque in the city.1
Between June 18-20, 1999 62 ethnic Chechen families living near the border with Chechnya were reportedly thrown out of their homes and deported to Chechnya by 30 well armed, drunken police officers. The policemen then burned down the Chechens' homes. Most of those deported have never lived in Chechnya and are therefore especially vulnerable to the chaos that reigns there. When a journalist asked General V. Belchenko, the Deputy Secretary of the Stavropol Kray Council on Economic and Social Security and a leading member in the local Cossack hierarchy, to explain the situation, General Belchenko reportedly said that he understood the motivations of those behind the expulsions since between April and June 1999, 15 policemen had been killed on the Chechen border.2
On February 26-28, 1999 police at department #6 of the Stavropol region reportedly tortured more than 30 people from the Caucasus while insulting their ethnicity.3
Persecution of Chechens is systematic. In what appears to be an effort to institute a quota system for the number of Chechens arrested in the region, from the first quarter of 1999 on, local law enforcement agencies have been required to report the number of Chechens arrested for crimes, violating the passport regime, the number of Chechen held bank accounts and Chechen owned businesses that have been investigated, and the number of officials who have been arrested for assisting Chechens to commit crimes.4
In April 2001, the newspaper Severny Kavkaz reported that some Cossack groups have called for expelling all 20,000 Chechens currently living in Stavropol Krai from the region. While such inflammatory rhetoric would be worrisome in any case, it is particularly troublesome in Stavropol, because Stavropol Cossaks have recently demanded to be armed and allowed to patrol the border with Chechnya and have begun to form paramilitary self-defense detachments.5
Tver
According to the Russian human rights organization Memorial, mob violence against people from the Caucasus took place in the town of Udomlya, Tver Oblast on May 10, 1998. The violence reportedly stemmed from a fight between a Russian and an Armenian at a local disco. A crowd of 250-300 young people gathered, beat the Armenian and a passing Azerbaijani motorist, then proceeded to go around the city looking for more "blacks" (a pejorative term for people from the Caucasus) to attack.
1 Keston News Service, October 29, 1998.
2 East West Institute, Russian Regional Report, July 15, 1999.
3 Stavropol Regional Human Rights Center, "Human Rights in the Regions of the Russian Federation: 1999," Moscow Helsinki Group, Volume 3, 313-314.
4 Stavropol Regional Human Rights Center, "Human Rights in the Regions of the Russian Federation: 1999," Moscow Helsinki Group, Volume 3, 333-334.
5 "Cossacks in Russia's Stavropol Organizing Against Chechens." FBIS. April 20, 2001. Original Source: Severny Kavkaz, April 10, 2001.
Yelling "Beat the blacks!" the crowd destroyed market booths that belong to people from the Caucasus and went after any non-Russian that they could find. Although over 200 police, firefighters and MVD troops mobilized, they did nothing more than follow the crowd around trying to persuade them to go home. All total, seven rioters were arrested, though they were released soon afterwards. Although the city administration condemned the rioters, some members of the District Council praised them and called for a "cleansing" of all the city's ethnic minorities. The violence itself, according to Memorial, followed a rise of anti-Caucasian sentiment during the first Chechen war—in 1995 and again in 1997, OMON troops reportedly searched apartments belonging to Chechens and beat them.1
When asked by a local newspaper in an interview what he thought about a recent shooting of a Chechen in Udomlya, Vladimir Yamskoy, a deputy on the Udomlya district council and a well known pro-Yeltsin politician in the early 1990's, stated that although there are "wonderful people" among the Chechens, "Everyone must answer for his people." Mr. Yamskoy also gave a positive appraisal of the RNU's activities in Udomlya, stating that they keep kids off the streets and away from drugs and cut firewood for old ladies. He concluded by saying, "If they take off the swastika, I wouldn't see any reason not to join them." In the same article that carried the interview, a local Chechen leader, Maksim Bayrakov, was quoted as saying that the police deliberately spread rumors about how bloodthirsty Chechens are in order to incite public opinion against them.2
Volgograd
According to Obshchaya Gazeta, local Cossack organizations periodically demand the expulsion of Chechens and other minority groups from the region, and tension between Cossacks and minorities at times leads to violence.3 Some Russians who are not part of Cossack communities have also expressed xenophobic feelings towards ethnic minorities who are seen by many as criminals. For example, Human Rights Watch interviewed a Chechen woman in Volgograd who claimed that a Russian neighbor yelled at her, "You have a house here, you have a house there... One should kill you!"4 According to Novye Izvestiya, the village assembly of Duvovy Ovrag demanded that the authorities move all local Chechens out because some Chechens had supposedly sexually propositioned local women. Although an inquiry proved that none of the local Chechens were guilty, local villagers booed the regional administration's representative to the village and daily security patrols had to be started to keep the peace. Although the regional administration has in the past been relatively friendly to the Chechen population, who reportedly number 30,000-70,000, in response to growing instability in nearby regions bordering Chechnya, large scaled raids of Chechen communities took place in March 1999 as police searched for criminals and undocumented immigrants.5
1 Memorial, May 1998. Available on the Internet at: www.memo.ru/hr/discrim/ethnic/udomle.htm.
2 Afanasi-Birzha, May 28, 1999.
3 Obshchaya Gazeta, March 11, 1999.
4 "Ethnic Discrimination in Southern Russia," Human Rights Watch, July 1998.
5 Novye Izvestiya, March 11, 1999.
On October 17, 1999 protestors blocked the laying of a foundation stone for a mosque in Volgograd, a city with tens of thousands of Muslims, but no mosque. The former mosque building currently houses the local military commissioner.1
Tension between the Russian population, and the local Chechen and Azeri communities has risen dramatically since the start of the second Chechen war. After a deadly terrorist attack on a Russian military base in Volgograd, authorities targeted people from the Caucasus, closing down several businesses and market places and arresting the head of the Azeri community.2
After a Chechen murdered a youth from the village of Kletskaya, and rumors spread that a Chechen had raped a four year old Russian girl, local residents rioted, destroying market booths belonging to people from the Caucasus and smashing the widows of their homes. A hostel was set on fire and the family of the murder suspect barely escaped with their lives. Cossacks arrived the next day, summoning the villagers to a meeting, where they demanded that no more Chechens be allowed to live in the district and that the authorities consider evicting all Chechens from the area. At the meeting, some of the villagers vowed to take matters into their own hands. The authorities announced the next day that no more Chechens would be allowed to settle in Kletskaya, but that the Chechen community would not be evicted.3
In August 2000, the Tsaritsin Don Cossacks sent a petition to President Putin asking that he institute direct presidential rule in the region, since the regional authorities were not doing enough to protect the Russian population from Chechens, whom the Cossacks claimed are known for their "extreme hatred and cruelty towards the local population." Otherwise, Ataman Vladimir Melikhov warned, the inaction of the regional authorities would "incite us, the Russians, to lynch law, to pogroms."4 Soon afterwards, the regional prosecutor's office announced that it was looking into bringing charges of inciting ethnic hatred against the Cossack leader. The newspaper Nastoyashchaya Volgogradskaya Pravda printed the Cossack petition and another newspaper, Den za Dnyom, reportedly wrote a false article about Chechens slaughtering a lamb in the courtyard of an elementary school.5 The prominent national newspaper Nezavisimaya Gazeta contributed to the xenophobic hysteria by writing that:
Every year in Volgograd elementary schools there are fewer light-haired students. According to specialists, if present trends continue it will only lead to one thing— within 30 years Russians in Volgograd Oblast will become an ethnic minority, consigned to a submissive role in all spheres of activity.6
1 RFE/RL Newsline, October 19, 1999.
2 Kommersant, June 9, 2000.
3 Kommersant, July 29, 2000.
4 Obshchaya Gazeta, August 31, 2000.
5 Izvestiya, September 14, 2000.
6 Nezavisimaya Gazeta—regiony, September 5, 2000.
Oleg Savchenko, a prominent businessman who represents Volgograd in the State Duma and was a strong contender in the gubernatorial elections, has reportedly made statements in support of nationalistic groups and has called for the deportation of Chechens.1
Voronezh
The deputy head of the local RNU, Yevgeny Yenshin, told a reporter from Izvestiya that over the period of several months the RNU had, "detained on the streets, in the markets, and in the railway station about 600 people of non-Russian nationality who had breached the peace." He also denounced "Chechen scum," "under-developed races," and mixed marriages, which he said result in "mongrels."2
A study by the Public Opinion Foundation reportedly found that a large number of Voronezh youths agreed with the statement "There is nothing that can be done with Chechnya, everybody there must be eliminated or their children will grow up to be our enemies."3
Vologda
In February 2000, plans to construct a mosque in Vologda drew protests, including from the local Russian Orthodox diocese, which complained that a mosque would be out of place in "our Orthodox city." Five thousand Muslims live in the city.4
Mikhail Surov, the head of the Vologda People's Movement and a member of the regional legislature, is reportedly known as a "local Zhirinovsky" for his nationalistic, anti-Caucasian views.5
The Russian Military
According to a 2000 report from the Soldiers' Mothers Organization, racist attitudes toward Chechens are common on every level of the armed forces, leading the group to conclude that the Russian military actively teaches such beliefs to new recruits. The report notes that soldiers are nearly unanimous in calling Chechens "apes" and speaking of the need for the complete extermination of the Chechens. The report even indicates that soldiers talk of the need to kill Chechen women specifically, in order to ensure that there will be no future generations of Chechens.6 Soldiers and OMON police from many parts of the country have served in both Chechen wars and are therefore likely to have been infected by the same violent racist ideology.
Conclusions
1 IEWS Russian Regional Report, September 7, 2000.
2 Izvestiya, September 23, 1997.
3 Delo, December 3, 1999.
4 RFE/RL Russian Federation Report, February 16, 2000.
5 The Moscow Times, August 5, 2000.
6 From a March 2000 report by the St. Petersburg chapter of the Soldiers' Mothers, available in English on the UCSJ website at www.fsumonitor.com/stories/041000rnws.shtml.
Throughout Russia, there is a significant level of animosity directed toward all people from the Caucasus, as inflammatory commentary, such as that in Kurgan Oblast, and acts of violence, such as those in Karelia and Moscow, demonstrate. Specifically anti-Chechen sentiments appear to be even more intense than that directed toward Caucasians in general, as numerous regions in Russia have seen anti-Chechen violence and calls to drive all Chechens from the region or country. A high level of anti-Muslim prejudice, seen in the opposition to construction of mosques in several Russian cities, further exacerbates the threats that Chechens face in Russia.
Two factors make the situation for Chechens throughout Russia especially dangerous: the violent manifestations of anti-Chechen feelings and the official tolerance of or participation in racist, anti-Chechen activities. Most notably in Moscow, but also in other cities and regions, officials encourage negative stereotyping of Chechens. In some cases, as in the incident in March 2001 in Moscow Oblast, law enforcement officers themselves have taken part in harassing and intimidating Chechens and in other cases, as during the May 1998 anti-Caucasian riot in Tver, officials do little or nothing to prevent grass roots violence against people from the Caucasus.
The combination of grass-roots racism and official approval or even encouragement of anti-Chechen stereotypes and actions creates a very dangerous situation for Chechens in Russia. The fact that anti-Chechen racism manifests itself violently and that the state is unwilling to protect Chechen victims of this racism makes Chechens especially vulnerable.