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Fascist attacks in Moscow
By Patrick Richter
15 November 2001
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During the evening of October 30, around 300 skinheads armed
with wooden clubs and iron bars launched a vicious attack on
Tsaritsyno market in the south of Moscow. They assaulted dozens
of stallholders, most of whom originate from the southern regions of
the former Soviet Union. Following their initial attack, about 100
skinheads then entered the subway station near the
market�lashing out at passers-by and those using the tube. They
got off one station further on and then attacked Afghan refugees
residing in the Hotel Sevastopol. Some of those assaulted suffered
life threatening injuries.
As a result of the pogrom two died immediately�a 35 and a 37-
year-old from Azerbaijan�with an 18-year-old youth from Tajikistan
dying later on November 5 from head wounds. More than 20 other
victims were treated in hospital.
Politicians, police and the media immediately attempted to write off
the assaults as the hooligan acts of football fans, noting that
Russian citizens had also been subject to attack. One day after
the attacks the head of the Local Administration for Internal Affairs
(GUVD), Major General Vladimir Pronin, said that the youth
involved were fanatical supporters of the Moscow football team,
Spartak, who had been unable to �give vent to their emotions�
following the defeat Saturday of their team in a match against the
Zenit team from St. Petersburg.
Eyewitnesses and even police reports make clear, however, that
the youth involved were neo-fascists. Many members of the group
had shaved heads and bore badges proclaiming allegiance to the
extreme right-wing Russian National Unity (RNU).
Many witnesses concluded that the extent and the deliberate
nature of the armed attack pointed to its having been planned.
�What I saw didn�t look like a spontaneous act,� said Valera, 27,
who asked not to use his last name. �The attackers were dressed
in uniform. Somebody probably organised it; at least it seems to
me that it was well planned-beforehand. How could it be that in the
space of three minutes they could make such a mess, breaking
glass and kicking people down? Believe me, that wasn�t just a
mob.�
Anna Mazhuga, director of the Anti-Fascist Youth Movement,
stated, �I can�t say whether this attack was planned beforehand,
but these people don�t generally act on their own. They have well-
organised groups.�
According to the GUVD there are around 2,000 active and
organised neo-fascists who have loose links to a further 25,000
extreme rightists. Neo-fascist attacks have increased recently. On
April 20, the birthday of Adolf Hitler, around150 skinheads attacked
a food market, manned largely by traders from the Caucasus, in
the Moscow district of Yassenovo. Ten people were injured. On the
same day a Chechen youth was stabbed in the centre of Moscow
and then in May an African student was stabbed in the subway. On
November 3, just four days after the latest attack, a further assault
by 150 skinheads on another Moscow market was only averted at
the last moment.
As a matter of course, politicians and police deny the real political
background to such attacks, claiming that they are of a purely
criminal nature. Such attacks are then used to intensify the
building up of the state apparatus.
Although a spokesman for the police stated that they know the
names of all those involved in the attack on the market in
Tsaritsyno, just 25 have been arrested. The state attorney has
charged them with murder and �rowdiness�, according to
paragraphs 105 and 213 of Russian law. The paragraph referring to
�incitement to nationalist discord�, however, is not to be applied.
The chairman of the Duma party, Unity, Vladimir Pekhtin, reacted
with the demand for an increase in the budget for security
structures and his proposal met with broad support. Russian
President Vladimir Putin reacted in similar fashion, but only five
days after the attacks. He commissioned the interior minister to
take measures to ensure there is no repetition of such �negative
extremist deeds�.
The role of Russian official policy
Russian politics has systematically prepared the basis for such
disturbances by neo-fascists, the most extensive violent attacks of
their type since the pogroms against Jews in the days of the Tsar.
Following the collapse the Soviet Union, a plethora of fascist and
nationalist organisations emerged which were openly encouraged
and incited by leading politicians and state bodies.
Prominent examples are the notorious Russian National Unity
(RNU), led by Alexander Barkashov. For years the largest openly
fascist organisation in Russia was running training camps in the
city�s Teletsky park, with the toleration of the Moscow authorities .
At the camps, thousands of skinheads and neo-nazis are trained in
military techniques. Officially the organisation had a contract for
the �supervision of the parks.�
Leading politicians and state officials regularly use disparaging
language, largely out of use since the times of the Tsar, to
describe non-Russian nationalities. Citizens from the Ukraine and
the Caucasus, Jews, Tatars, those of Asian origin and citizens of
the central Asian republics are treated with contempt along the
lines of former great Russian chauvinism, and�as in the case of
Chechnya�made responsible for the current social crisis.
Those coming from the Russian regions of the northern Caucasus -
Dagestan, Chechyna, Ingushetia or Kabardino-Balkaria�as well as
the former Soviet republics of Georgia, Azerbaijan, Armenia or
Uzbekistan�are amongst those who have suffered most from the
collapse of the Soviet economy. With unemployment in some
regions reaching eighty percent, large numbers have been plunged
into the worst extremes of poverty. Many have been thrown back to
forms of subsistence economy, forced to produce their own food on
any land that is available.
Many regard their last hope as leaving the regions in which they
live in favour of the big Russian cities, where they attempt to find
work and some sort of income selling fruit and vegetables. Moscow
in particular has proved to be a pole of attraction. Currently over
eighty percent of all Russian financial transactions are concluded
there and the general standard of living far exceeds that of any
other Russian city and region.
In terms of domestic politics, a virtual state of war has been
declared, in particular, against all those whose dark skin or hair
distinguishes them from local Russians. These migrants are
described as �blacks� and are virtually deprived of all civic rights
and used as scapegoat for any and every mishap. During Soviet
times there existed regulations governing the movement of people
who attempted to come to Moscow, but regulations by the Moscow
state administration under its mayor Yuri Lushkov have intensified
and tightened up, especially for those groups suffering
discrimination. Discussion over additional discriminatory measures
against Caucasian citizens continued right up until the latest
attacks.
Officially non-Moscow inhabitants are only allowed to remain in the
city for three days before registering with the authorities. Any
extension of a permit to stay is only agreed to when the applicant
can show a return ticket, specifying exactly when he plans to
leave. Registration is only possible in the first place for those who
can prove they have their own flat or are accommodated in a hotel.
The so-called �blacks� are the main victims of arbitrary suppression
by the police. At virtually any subway station or main street in the
capital, it is possible to observe police deliberately checking and
controlling �blacks� and demanding on-the-spot fines for the
slightest offence. Whoever is unable to pay is taken to the police
station and then has to be bailed out by relatives or acquaintances.
Frequently those arrested are brutalised by the police.
Since the financial crisis of August 1998, which led to the
impoverishment of broad layers of the population and Putin�s
ascendancy to the presidency, the situation has worsened
considerably. In the name of a �dictatorship of law�, the government
in the Kremlin has undertaken a major lurch to the right in terms of
domestic policies. Police-state methods have been made the basis
for a new principle of government and the ruling elite consciously
evokes great Russian chauvinism.
An important milestone was the war in Chechnya. The devastating
bombing attacks carried out in late summer 1999 in Moscow and
other Russian cities, which killed over 300 people, were used to
create a climate of fear and intimidation. There is still no clarity
today regarding the identity of those responsible for the attacks.
Although there were indications that the Russian secret service
was involved in planting the bombs, Chechen terrorists were
immediately blamed by the authorities�so justifying the Russian
invasion of Chechnya. At the time Putin made clear his intentions
in the most vulgar manner: In the �struggle against terrorism�, he
announced: �we will roast the terrorists out of the toilets they are
hiding in.�
Parallel to the bombing incidents, measures were undertaken to
curtail the freedom of the press. In the name of the �fight against
the oligarchs� and persons such as Vladimir Gussinski or Boris
Berezovsky, who had established powerful media empires, press
and other media were increasingly brought under the control of the
government. This campaign was accompanied by systematic
intimidation against journalists such as Andrei Babitzky or Anna
Politkovskaya, who had published devastating material regarding
the activities of the Russian army in Chechnya.
Putin regarded the reaction by the US government to the events of
September 11 as a confirmation of his course. Already, just a few
hours after the attacks on the World Trade Centre and the
Pentagon, he said he had, �already warned the Americans two
years ago of the danger of international terrorism ... They did not
listen to us, however.� Intensified repression against �Chechen
terrorists� was immediately put on the agenda.
This is the background that has facilitated the growth of neo-fascist
and racist tendencies.
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