The Public Chamber hosted a discussion “Nationalist danger in Russia: results of 2011”

January 17, 2012 at the Public Chamber a discussion was held on the topic “Nationalist danger in Russia: results of 2011 of the year. Trends, prospects, countermeasures”. The discussion was based on the report of Semyon Charny " Social Foundations and Manifestations of Radical Nationalist sentiment in the Russian Federation. Review for 2011 ”, prepared by the International Human Rights Movement “World without Nazism”.

The event was opened by Deputy Secretary of the Public Chamber Mikhail Ostrovsky.

The keynote speaker was the Vice-Chairman International human rights movement "World without Nazism" Valery Engel. IN In his speech, he presented information about xenophobic crimes and countermeasures directed against them. Speaker announced an increase in the number of right-wing radicals (20-24 thousand). However, he noted that in They are not the most numerous in Russia, most of them in the Baltic countries. Except In addition, V. Engel said about the intention of the ultranationalists to penetrate into power (on example of a protest movement) and announced the penetration of some of them (only the signatories were named as an example of such "Letters of Five Hundred".)

Unlike V. Engel, the chairman of the Commission on interethnic relations and freedom of conscience, Nikolai Svanidze named examples nationalists in power, in the future he sees a threat in the figure of Dmitry Rogozin, although he does not exclude other leaders.

Deputy Director of the Institute of Ethnology and Anthropology of the Russian Academy of Sciences Vladimir Zorin stated in his speech that the development of nationalism should be seen as a threat to national security. Tension in this area, as well as in the area of ​​religiously motivated extremism, according to the speaker, started to increase since 2008. V. Zorin proposed to strengthen the responsibility for separatist propaganda and propaganda of nationalism.

According to Archpriest Vsevolod Chaplin, it is impossible not to give voting rights of one part of society. He believes that liberal democracy is not is a universal recipe for counteraction, the most important thing is unite against xenophobia and the division of Russia. Archpriest advocated the inevitability of punishment, which, in particular, implies the rejection of anonymity in the Internet. O. Vsevolod noted that it is necessary to solve the problems posed by "patriotic organizations." Among these problems are the "uncertainty of the status of the Russian people" and difficulty in its self-organization, which, presumably, should proceed in some original forms. However, according to the speaker, all peoples should organize themselves in their historical forms, including Caucasian peoples and Cossacks, but from the universalist recipes that were offered "in the last 20 years”, should be abandoned.

Director of the SOVA center Alexander Verkhovsky noted that, despite the difference in methods, the trends noted by the Center are the same with report data. Now the police have managed to significantly reduce the number of violent crimes. As a result, right-wing radicals turned to the side political activity. There are two trends here. First, turn to legal politics, and secondly, to "anti-systemic terror". Rhetorically, the second dominates in the right environment, in reality - first. So far, however, this turn to "legal politics" is taking place only on the level of the protest movement, in which nationalists - active, but small minority (for example, they are not even members of the Organizing Committee, excluding Alexei Navalny, but to the uninfluential Initiative Group).

The speaker further stated the need for a radical legislative reforms, as the costs of anti-extremist activity are so great that are beginning to be comparable to the benefits.

In conclusion, A. Verkhovsky said that today day Russia cannot completely exclude nationalism from the life of society. If understand nationalism as a set of political currents in which interests nations are placed above other values, then society has a choice only, what nationalism will dominate in the future, and how radical it will be. In addition, the speaker noted that it is important how the word "nation" will be understood in society. At first 2011, Russian President D. Medvedev and V. Putin talked a lot about the formation of a “civil nations" as opposed to "ethnic nationalisms", although the term itself was avoided. Unfortunately, then the activity in this direction decreased almost to zero.

Then the member of the Public Chamber Alexander Sokolov spoke, who stated that "practically all opposition forces in Russia playing the nationalist card. As an example of such forces, he cited LDPR and the Communist Party. The speaker expressed fears of a new surge of nationalist rhetoric in connection with the upcoming presidential campaign. According to A. Sokolov, the candidate Vladimir Putin should not remain silent in this situation - the authorities should state your position.

Member of the Public Chamber, President of the Center for Social and political research ("Aspect") Georgy Fedorov, noted that it is very difficult identify nationalists capable of negotiations. According to the president of Aspect, V. Tor and K. Krylov are not suitable for negotiations. G. Fedorov emphasized that people "flirting with the Nazis" should be clearly condemned. So, for example, the writer B. Akunin should not talk to A. Navalny, who shakes hands with the "ziggers". Speaker criticized liberals.

The event was also addressed by the President of the Congress National Associations of Russia Professor Vladimir Khomeriki and Chairman of the Dagestan Public Association Gamzat Gamzatov.

Sources

• Own inf.
• See also
• Sukhov I. Anatomy of Nazism // Moscow news. 2012. January 18.
• Novikova I. Nationalism was attributed to the opposition // Moscow news. 2012. January 17.
• Is the number of ethnically motivated crimes on the decline? // Social Information Agency. 2012. January 17.
• Radicals found an outlet in politics // Official site of the Public Chamber of the Russian Federation. 2012. January 17.
• Chairman of the Synodal Department for Relations between the Church and Society spoke at a round table on problems of interethnic relations // Patriarchy.ru. 2012. January 17.
• The reasons for the growth of nationalist sentiments in Russia are discussed in the RF OP // Tribune of the Public Chamber. 2012. January 17.
• Ultranationalists set their sights on power // VSMS. 2012. January 17.