Racism and Xenophobia in July 2013

The following is our monthly review of incidences of xenophobia and radical nationalism, along with any government countermeasures, for June 2013. The review is based on material gathered by Sova Center in the course of our daily monitoring.

Since the beginning of the year, eight people have been killed and 79 injured by racist violence in 23 regions of Russia. Two people received death threats.

In July 2013 we registered no fewer than two acts of vandalism, in as many regions of the country, where there is reason to suspect xenophobia. Nizhny Novgorod’s St. Peter and Paul Cathedral and a Volgograd region Yazidi churchyard were targeted.

As such, since the beginning of the year, we have recorded 30 acts of neo-Nazi or otherwise racist or xenophobic vandalism in 23 regions of the country.

July saw several household conflicts that, due to the involvement of nationalists, took on an interethnic character. The main was the now-famous incident in Pugachev, in the Saratov region, but there was also a noteworthy gathering in Sredneuralsk in the Sverdlovsk region.

Nationalists continued to conduct what can only be described as anti-migrant raids. This month there were reports that members of the Bright Rus and Shield of Moscow groups took part in an operation called “Zaslon-1” (Barrier-1). Far-right activists not only participated in the raids but also conducted searches and reviewed migrants’ documents.

On July 27, St. Petersburg nationalists affiliated with the Slavic Force of Dmitri ‘Rabid’ Yevtushenko conducted raids on shops in the north of the city; Nikolai Bondarik of the Russian Party is also known to have participated, among about 30 other people. As a result fruit stands were wrecked at six points of sale, a fruit storehouse was evacuated and police arrested three migrants for insulting members of the raid group. In the area where the raid took place, a fruitmonger from the Caucasus was shot to death. Despite police and riot squads at the scene, no participants in the raid were arrested. Similar incidents followed in Moscow, where at the Matveyevskoe Market police broke the skull of a suspected rapist. The raids in Moscow were carried out under the guise of a bid to ‘decriminalize’ such markets.

This month saw no fewer than two indictments against five individuals for racist violence where a court recognized a hate motive – in the Moscow and Sverdlovsk regions. As such, since the beginning of the year there have been at least 22 such convictions against 37 individuals in 18 regions of Russia.

In terms of xenophobic propaganda, July 2013 saw 12 indictments in 11 regions of the country against 13 people. Since the beginning of the year there have been 62 such convictions against 63 people in 40 regions of Russia.

The Federal List of Extremist Materials was updated five times in July, with the incorporation of entries 1921-1989. New items include videos and xenophobic comments posted to Russian social network VKontakte and to blogs; deleted articles about Pussy Riot; xenophobic pamphlets; articles from the websites of the Movement Against Illegal Immigration (DPNI) and RONS; homophobic and anti-Semitic books by Grigory Klimov; the books Strike of the Russian Gods and Racial Hygiene, which are now featured in the list four and three times, respectively; a new article by Boris Stomakhin; materials from Ufa Tatars; various Islamic materials; a book by Said Nursi; a Kavkaz Center mirror site, and Imam TV website.