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Volume 2, Number 26
Wednesday, July 3, 2002

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
_____________________________________________________________

U.S. DEMANDS IMMUNITY FROM INTERNATIONAL COURT

RUSSIAN COURT TO RETRY OFFICER FOR KILLING CHECHEN WOMAN

THE KRYASHEN BREAK THE MOULD

'THE WHIM OF LOCAL OFFICIALS' TRUMPS THE CONSTITUTIONAL COUNCIL

* * * QUOTE OF THE WEEK * * * 

WITH MINORITIES AT RISK, THE STATE OF HUMAN RIGHTS IN RUSSIA IS
UNCERTAIN
By Micah H. Naftalin and Nickolai Butkevich

Antisemitism, xenophobia, and religious persecution, from both
official and grassroots sources, continued to threaten ethnic and
religious minorities throughout Russia in 2001.  From Kaliningrad to
Vladivostok, from arctic Murmansk to the resort area of Krasnodar,
regional authorities ignore dangerous hate groups who aim violent
rhetoric and actions against minority groups, refusing to prosecute
hate crimes or, at best, classifying them under the euphemism
"hooliganism." The hate groups range from skinhead gangs to structured
neo-Nazi groups like the People's National Party or the successors of
Russian National Unity to officially approved paramilitary Cossack
formations. With some exceptions, federal authorities have failed to
take strong, consistent action to crack down on hate groups or against
politicians who illegally incite ethnic or religious hatred. While
there have been improvements in the reactions of the authorities to
antisemitic incidents as compared to previous years, official reaction
is still weak. After a decline in antisemitic incidents in 2000, the
summer and early fall of 2001 witnessed a rash of beatings of Jews
(Moscow, Orenburg, Kostroma, and Omsk) and arson attacks on Jewish
property (Ryazan, Kostroma, Kazan), none of which have been solved.
Nor have the vast majority of past antisemitic attacks-the synagogue
bombings in Moscow in 1999, the attack on a Jewish school in Ryazan in
2000, and numerous other incidents-resulted in convictions.

President Vladimir Putin continues to make positive gestures toward
Russia's Jewish community, attending its events, praising the role of
Jews in Russia's history and contemporary life, and strongly
condemning antisemitism. In many regions, it is no longer uncommon to
see a mayor or governor visit a synagogue or congratulate the
community on a holiday. This has helped create a more confident
climate for Jews, spurring a continued renaissance of Jewish life in
Russia, as witnessed by the growing number of synagogues being
returned to the community after decades of government ownership, the
increasing coverage in the media of communal activities and statements
by Jewish leaders about domestic and international events, and a
rising willingness of Jewish leaders in some parts of the country to
stand up for their rights.

However, a sense of unease remains. This feeling is unavoidable, given
the dark history of antisemitism in Russia and doubts about the
country's long-term stability and prosperity. The majority of Russians
still live in poverty, the country's population continues to decrease
at an alarming rate, equipment and infrastructure are crumbling, and
the economy remains dependent on volatile world oil prices. Russian
Jews know that they are the favorite scapegoats of many demagogic
politicians whose popularity may rise suddenly in the face of another
economic collapse like the August 1998 crash, which led to a sharp
rise in antisemitic incidents in 1998-99.

Even if present economic and political trends continue and Russia
remains stable, there are other reasons to worry. Jewish leaders'
assertions denying the existence of state antisemitism are only partly
correct. While it is true that the active promotion of antisemitism is
no longer state policy, as it was throughout much of the Soviet era,
passive state antisemitism persists.  While there has been some slight
improvement in the enforcement by federal prosecutors of laws against
the incitement of ethnic hatred, as a rule they fail to properly apply
these laws, or ensure that regional prosecutors do, sending a message
to antisemites that their actions will likely go unpunished. Far too
much latitude has been granted to regional officials in how they react
to the activities of hate groups or extremist politicians, leaving
many to choose to take no action at all to protect minorities. In a
November 2001 meeting with regional police officials, Deputy Minister
of Internal Affairs Aleksandr Chekalin admitted as much when he
stated: "We have gone too far in our inaction against extremist
youth." The consequences of this permissive attitude towards hate
groups are especially clear in Moscow, where for years police ignored
skinhead attacks against foreign students, dark-skinned traders, and
even diplomats from African and Asian countries.  Only now, when the
problem has become so acute that skinhead violence is an almost daily
event in Moscow, have the city authorities begun to take the skinhead
problem seriously. Unfortunately, it may be too late to contain the
growth of skinhead groups, which have increased their membership and
geographical scope to a stunning degree. In addition, while there are
some signs of improvement, cases of police idly watching as skinheads
beat ethnic and religious minorities, or even engaging in such
violence themselves, continue to be reported throughout the country.
Speaking to a Russian reporter at the UN's World Conference Against
Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia, and Intolerance in Durban
in September 2001, Aleksandr Verkhovsky of the "Panorama" think tank -
a leading authority on extremist groups in Russia - put the problem
succinctly: "Extremist pro-Nazi paramilitary organizations
propagandizing the ideas of racial hatred operate openly in Russia,
and the state does nothing to prevent this."

This trend of passive state antisemitism and racism is even more
apparent in the judicial branch. Many judges refuse to punish
antisemites and other extremists, even when they have clearly violated
the law. While the justice system tends to come down hard on even
minor offenses, antisemitic and racist violence is often treated with
kid gloves. According to "Nezavisimaya Gazeta": "For stealing a
chicken, you can get eight years, but for a pogrom, several months."

The State Duma remains a hotbed of antisemitism and racism, especially
among Communist deputies. State Duma deputies from Bryansk and
Krasnodar Kray regularly violate laws against public hate speech, as
does Deputy Speaker of the State Duma Vladimir Zhirinovsky. Hate
literature is openly sold in the State Duma, including David Duke's
"The Jewish Question Through the Eyes of an American" and several
rabidly antisemitic newspapers.

On the regional level, President Putin has made some impressive
progress in reversing years of radical decentralization under his
predecessor. Many regional laws have been brought into accordance with
federal legislation, secessionist movements that threatened the
Russian Federation have been undercut (with the obvious exception of
Chechnya), significant sources of revenue have been redirected from
the regions to the center, and the central government has achieved the
right to remove governors who abuse the law. However, the central
government remains weak, and this weakness, when combined with the
indifference of many central government officials to the problems of
antisemitism, racism, religious persecution, and other human rights
violations, has helped create a system of government in which regional
leaders make some basic concessions to the Kremlin in return for the
right to treat their citizens any way they choose. As a result,
minority groups are treated differently from region to region, largely
at the whim of the local bosses. The Jewish community is a case in
point. In a few extreme cases they are demonized by regional leaders
(Kursk, Krasnodar) or by media controlled by the regional
administration (Vladimir, Oryol, Bryansk), in a few more their
concerns are taken seriously (the Moscow city administration being the
most important example), while in the bulk of Russia's regions, the
authorities neither attack nor adequately defend Jews against
grassroots antisemitic violence. In a prime example of collaboration
between hate groups and regional authorities, in at least four regions
(Ryazan, Voronezh, Tver, Republic of Mari-El), local newspapers
reported that a successor organization to the RNU (Russian Rebirth)
was officially registered in 2001 - two years after the RNU was banned
in Moscow. In late December 2001, a Jewish leader from Borovichi gave
a possible reason why groups like the RNU continue to attract support
in the provinces: "Small cities are of special interest to extremist
organizations. The low level of life, the low education level of the
population, and the large fall in the economy are all potential soil
for new members."

The manner in which President Putin is tackling the problem of the
central government's weakness shows an alarming tendency on his part
to focus on the levers of power rather than on the rule of law. Jews
and all other citizens will never be truly safe until a democratic,
law-based system develops. Yet Russia under Putin seems to be sliding
more and more toward authoritarianism.

A disturbing trend that emerged after the September 11 attacks is the
radicalization of some of Russia's Islamic community. A few Russian
Muslim leaders, most but not all self-proclaimed, publicly repeated
the radical Islamist canard that Israel planned the September 11
attacks. Rallies in support of the Taliban and the PLO have taken
place in some predominantly Muslim regions. So far, such opinions are
shared by a small minority of Muslims mostly concentrated in Chechnya
and Dagestan. Yet this is a growing trend that requires continued
monitoring.

Other ethnic and religious minorities continue to be subjected to
violence and intimidation, both from official and grassroots actors.
Chechens and other so-called "people of Caucasian nationality" - a
widely used racist term used to describe people from the Caucasus,
millions of whom live in Russia - continue to be subjected to police
shakedowns and skinhead attacks in almost every region and city.
Dark-skinned foreign students, tens of thousands of whom reside in
Russia, are regularly beaten by skinheads and, with a few exceptions,
police do nothing to defend them. Meskhetian Turks, Armenians, and
other groups are targeted by an official policy of racism in Krasnodar
Kray, where officials deny them the most basic rights and empower
Cossack paramilitary groups to beat and harass them. Krasnodar Kray is
the most extreme example of the problem of vigilante Cossack
formations; most Russian cities now have such groups, many of which
are explicitly racist, working in cooperation with police or as
private security guards. According to an "Izvestiya" report last
March, Cossacks have 700 officially registered Cossack organizations.

When it comes to racism, there has been no improvement of the climate
in Russia; instead, the situation has gotten noticeably worse. One of
Russia's leading pollsters-Yuri Levada-revealed in December 2001 that
around 40% of Russians believe that non-Russians are bad people.
Despairing of police protection, some targeted minority groups are
beginning to form self-defense units, raising the specter of ethnic
clashes.

As in past years, the Russian Orthodox Church whips up hysteria about
minority Christians, labeling them "totalitarian sects" and even tools
of foreign intelligence agencies bent on breaking apart Russia in a
"spiritual attack." The Orthodox Church remains a bastion of extreme
anti-Western views. In December 2000 Patriarch Alexi II accused the
West of waging "a well planned, bloodless war.against our people,
aimed at exterminating them." These views are often reflected back
onto minority Christian groups, perceived as "non-Russian" or
"Western" despite the historical presence of many of these faiths in
Russia. In some regions, local authorities collaborate with the
Orthodox Church by denying minority Christians registration or by
demonizing them in the local press. In full view of a thunderstruck
foreign press corps, the Moscow city authorities tried to disband the
Salvation Army and the Jehovah's Witnesses, though they were
ultimately unsuccessful. In October 2001, Mikhail Odintsev - chief of
the Department on Religious and National Questions for the Human
Rights Ombudsman of the Russian Federation - reported that in
2000-2001, his office received around 1,000 complaints from people of
various faiths about the refusal of the authorities to register or
reregister them, as well as other forms of official harassment.
Grass-roots violence remains a serious problem. In late 2001, Ludmila
Alekseeva of the Moscow Helsinki Group cited religious freedom
advocates as speaking "about the growing number of attacks on
believers, including Pentecostals, Baptists, and Jehovah's Witnesses.
People are beaten and threats are made, for the most part by law
enforcement officers. This began soon after the adoption of the 1997
law [on religion] and that every year such cases have increased, which
is especially alarming."

"Islamophobia" remains widespread, reflected in the opposition by some
regional authorities to the building of mosques and the tendency of
much of the Russian press to equate Islam with terrorism, without
taking into account the diversity of Islam. The war in Chechnya drags
on, brutalizing and radicalizing Chechen civilians and creating a
whole generation of rabidly racist Russian soldiers and policemen.

In the wake of September 11, it is clear that comprehensive monitoring
of antisemitism and other forms of hate are more crucial than ever
because of the nexus between xenophobia and terrorism. The monitoring
of these phenomena in Russia gives those interested in improving
conditions there a useful indicator of the state of civil society,
ethnic relations, rule of law, and political stability.
-------------------------------------------------------------

Micah H. Naftalin is UCSJ's national director; Nickolai Butkevich is
the research director.

* * * *

_____________________________________________________________
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