Valery Tishkov: The first to take to the streets will not be immigrants, but skinheads

On November 9, 2005, Nezavisimaya Gazeta published an interview with the director of the Institute of Ethnology and Anthropology of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Valery Tishkov, about the possibility of interethnic unrest in Russia.

V. Tishkov is categorically against drawing a direct analogy between the current Russian situation and the Paris riots: Russian immigrants are absolutely disenfranchised and unorganized, moreover, in Russia there is still no practice of settling regions along ethnic lines. "If anything is possible with us, it is copying the very methods of violence - in the form of arson of cars, pogroms, but it is more likely that all this can be done (with different goals and different emotions) by members of youth groups from among right-wing extremists such as skinheads than immigrant workers working at our large construction sites, dachas or markets".

The only spontaneous and mass action of the community was a spontaneous demonstration of Moscow Azerbaijanis several years ago in response to the murder of their teenage countryman by a policeman in Luzhniki.

To prevent spontaneous mass neo-Nazi violence, it is urgent to start implementing programs aimed at improving the public atmosphere. This also applies to law enforcement agencies, imbued with the spirit of xenophobia, and opposition to political organizations preaching aggressive anti-immigrationism. It is anti-migrant sentiments that are extremely active in society.

Indicative in this sense is the Russian interpretation of the Paris events: “What is happening today in France is interpreted as follows: this scenario can be avoided only by clearing Moscow, the country, large cities of migrants. All this can lead to some kind of manifestations of discontent, violence, revenge.It is impossible to clear the country of migrants, because they support all construction, a significant part of the service sector, trade, utilities, this can simply undermine our economy and stop the life of large cities, for example Moscow. to disrupt votes in elections is too dangerous and cynical a game. It is this line that the Rodina party is pursuing. And this is our most dangerous reaction to the events in France . "

According to V. Tishkov, urgent measures are also needed to improve the situation of migrants in order to save them from the need to commit illegal actions. "It is important not to give them the opportunity to be imbued with despair and hatred, which can lead to violence . "

The attitude towards migrants in Russia is a big moral and ethical problem for the whole society, "a kind of moral corruption" . At the same time, the anti-migrant sentiments of Russians are by no means a natural quality - " "people will treat new arrivals quite calmly if they see what benefits they bring .

At the same time, one must also be aware that aggressive violence against "foreigners", "ethnic neo-racism", when, for example, "people call the same Armenians or Azerbaijanis black, who are actually white, light-skinned Europeans" , if it is not stopped will surely respond. “In 10 years, their children will grow up, and the violence experienced by their parents will then echo in Moscow courtyards: they will beat them for this humiliation! Azerbaijanis, Armenians who grew up here and saw how their parents were humiliated, deceived, robbed or beaten . "

V. Tishkov notes another extremely dangerous trend of recent years (connected, first of all, with the war in Chechnya). “Spatial migration has stopped, far fewer young people serve in the Russian army outside the North Caucasus. The fact that we lock up the population there, there is no open exchange between republics, between regions, between regions of Russia - this is much worse than many other things. We should take part of the population from the North Caucasus to other regions of Russia, where they can work in peace, because in their homeland the birth rate is higher, and there are fewer resources. effective work. In Soviet times, temporary seasonal work was common among Chechens and Ingush, but now there is no such practice. This means that they must be given the opportunity to build their lives outside the same Chechnya, Ingushetia, Dagestan "(compare with our observations on subconscious rejection Russian peoples in the rhetoric of the media).

At the same time, the federal government, instead of solving the real problems of the North Caucasus, concludes some kind of separate agreements with local clans, which lead to further closure of these territories, their isolation.

Sources

• Samarina Alexandra. Valery Tishkov: We will get a retaliatory strike // Independent newspaper. 2005. November 9.