The presumption of guilt

Recently, in the Russian media there has been a surge of "anti -migrant" publications associated, as usual, with criminal news. The most high -profile story received dull names like “Brotherhood in the Khovansky Cemetery” or “Khovansky Battle”, with the subtitles of “The authorities talk about clashes between illegal immigrants hiding from the FMS”. This mass fight claimed the lives of three citizens of Tajikistan, four people fell into intensive care, more than a hundred participants in clashes were detained. The "battle" led people with completely Slavic names and surnames, in addition, it turned out that the most active part in the fight took "patriotically" tuned athletes associated with the organization "Battle Brotherhood" .

The simple viewer received, first of all, completely unequivocal information that illegal migrants staged lawlessness, and even in the cemetery. Journalists savored the incident, wondering about the reasons for what happened: the choice was offered both the disassembly between the Tajik criminal groups, and an interethnic skirmish with the participation of Caucasians, and the fact that illegal immigrants from Tajikistan were hidden in the cemetery from employees of the migration service. Only a week later, the representative of the Investigative Committee said: the fight was provoked by the director of the cemetery, who forced the migrants to expel him half of his income, and when he realized that no one was going to pay him, he decided to call the bandits to the aid of “solving the issue”.

Another example: news sites reported that "the FSB detained a group of citizens from the republics of Central Asia, which prepared terrorist attacks in Moscow for May holidays," mentioned the connection of detainees with the leaders of international terrorist organizations from Syria and Turkey. Among the 12 detainees were immigrants from Central Asia, including from Tajikistan. A shocking story - be it true. It turned out that a mistake came out: 8 out of 12 people - no terrorists and would be released or expelled from the country for violating the migration regime. The “terrorists” were not even shown (“in the interests of the investigation”, of course). For some reason, criminal cases were initiated not under a “terrorist” article, but for the illegal turnover of weapons and an attack on representatives of the authorities. Whether the terrorists were at all, or were these bandits, again, apparently, will remain a mystery. The matter, as they say, has already been done. It doesn’t matter to anyone whether these people were terrorists, or “illegal immigrants”, or simply by labor migrants who were in the wrong place at the wrong place. Prizes are issued, the rating of television channels is growing. It is very convenient to come up with a “preparing terrorist attack”, and then “prevent it”. It is simply impossible to come up with the best propaganda of hatred of a person from Asia.

Is the chance that the people of Slavic appearance would be suspected of something like without serious grounds and would begin to exhilarate this in the media with the same frenzy? And are there many positive events related to ethnic groups in Russia, which are described on TV and in newspapers? However, as soon as the case concerns the criminal situation with the participation of representatives of "non -Slavic nationalities", the press instantly is included in the work to build antimigrant hysteria. And often it is really unclear where in this news is true information, where there is half -truth, and where it is complete misinformation. For some reason, the opinions of various experts become perplexed in the passage news, and when covering more tragic and certainly socially important events in which foreign citizens are involved, it is enough to write “according to the authorities” and quote some operative.

The press with cynical irresponsibility transfers arrows into migrants as a source of public danger, pumping new doses of hatred to the audience. So this vicious circle acts

The Anti -Discrimination Center "Memorial" has been studying the problems of Tajik migrants in the Russian Federation for many years. These are already largely disenfranchised people now and then become hostages of the political course of Moscow, it is enough to recall the masses of Tajiks as an “asymmetric response” of Russia to detain Russian pilots in Tajikistan. Of course, it would be wrong to believe that the problem of bias and pretentiousness of the media concerns migrants alone. But in connection with the newly appeared fashion on news in the style of “here, look at what they have reached in Europe with their tolerance, they cannot cope with the problems of migration“ It is the problem of criminality of migrants that again becomes a potent instrument of public opinion management. Everyone heard how in these two stories I mentioned that these were Tajikistan citizens, everyone concluded, everyone believed and scared. However, when the information was not confirmed, the Russian channels did not come up with the refutations of the said. Meanwhile, thousands of Tajiks continue to live peacefully with us, work with us, their children study in schools with Russian children, who most likely also heard this news and also concluded about their classmates, neighbors, friends in the yard. And if someone, having seen such news, will attack the Asian janitor for the fact that he is a “terrorist”, no one will most likely know about this, and if he finds out, it is unlikely that the reason for this will be considered an inception from violence from the media.

Unfortunately, anti -migrant rhetoric has become an integral part of the intellectual discourse: journalists and commentators applying for expert knowledge and progressive views, Taldych about the dangers of visitors, and when they understand that they lie, they are in no hurry to give a refutation or give it in amazing form. For example, the famous "specialist on all issues" Julia Latynina hastened to blame immigrants from Central Asia of brutal murder of a high -ranking policeman in Syzran , and even in relations with the LPR militants. When it turned out that other people acted in Syzran, the only thing Latynina admitted was that she was "leaning abruptly." But her ornate invectives (how many Russian families these criminals killed in the Donbass, for what kind of merits the “killers” received Russian citizenship) did their job - struck the imagination of a completely liberal and advanced audience, introduced into the consciousness of people the next portion of hatred.

The conclusions to which the media bring us both “advanced” and an ax and peropaganda-false (the need for a visa regime or other tightening) and, most terrible, provoking hatred to new crimes on the basis of hatred. Meanwhile, independent thoughts would lead us to other conclusions. There is an undoubted rampant of crime in the country: corruption at the very top, and the gloomy household in the wide segments of the population (I recall the recent murder of bikers ), terrible not only in essence, but also by their "ideological" motives of crime (such as the murder of journalist Tsilikin on the basis of hatred or racially motivated attacks on the Tajiks in the Moscow metro). The press with cynical irresponsibility transfers arrows into migrants as a source of public danger, pumping new doses of hatred to the audience. So this vicious circle acts. In addition, ready-made solutions to the crime problems proposed by grief analysts are not good: the visa regime does not stop either the “illegal” migration, or crime-at least transnational, even small. And it is clear that there will be no visa regime with the former Central Asian republics of the USSR; On the contrary, Russia recreates in this space the Soviet Union in new forms of the EAEU.

We, Russian citizens, from these news about "anti -terrorist operations", from abuse of visiting visiting visiting and replicated by the media, is not shining anything but new restrictions. While we believe all this, they do not take serious measures to combat crime, and people in uniform arrest innocent people under the guise of “militants”, TV channels show this, strengthening faith in the need for “hard measures” and repressions. Meanwhile, under the pretext of "fighting terrorism", the Duma will take new restrictive laws , finally depriving us of the freedom of movement. And all this will be, as always, is done "for our good."

Sergey Mikheev - expert of the anti -discrimination center "Memorial"