VARIED EXPLANATIONS FOR STAVROPOL ETHNIC CLASHES

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 MOSCOW 003255 SIPDIS SENSITIVE SIPDIS E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: PGOV PHUM KSOC TBIO RS SUBJECT: VARIED EXPLANATIONS FOR STAVROPOL ETHNIC CLASHES MOSCOW 00003255 001.2 OF 002 ¶1. (SBU) Summary: During an embassy visit on June 19-20, leaders of the Stavropol city and regional government, political parties, NGOs, and ethnic groups gave conflicting explanations for last month's mob violence between Russians and Chechens in the city center. Many of the explanations suggest both a conscious effort to conceal dirty laundry, and a widely-held belief in conspiracy theories. While there may be some truth in the different versions making the rounds, the most likely cause -- namely that ethnic tensions between ethnic Russians and people from the Caucasus exist near the surface and sometimes boil over -- remains unaddressed and threatens to erupt again in the near future. End summary. -------------- Ethnic Tension and Mob Violence in Stavropol -------------- ¶2. (SBU) On May 25, a Chechen resident of Stavropol was killed during a brawl between Russians and Chechens outside a gambling hall in the city's industrial district. On June 3 (in what appears to be a completely unrelated incident),two Russian students were found stabbed to death in the city center. Rumors spread that this had been a revenge killing by the Chechens, and on the evenings of June 4 and 5, approximately 700 young men and teenagers, some with banners and signs with slogans like "Chechens go home!" gathered in the central square. After drowning out attempts by Stavropol Mayor Kuzmin and the acting Vice Governor to address and calm the crowd, participants in the demonstration marched out of the square and smashed shops and cars (some with drivers in them). Local leaders and police were taken by surprise and were slow to react. Within three days, the authorities were able to return the situation to normal, but only after extensive national media coverage. ¶3. (SBU) During our visit to the city in late June we saw little evidence of the violence, except boarded up windows on some shops. There were some signs of ethnic tension: In and near the city center, we observed nationalist and neo-fascist graffiti and bumper stickers. In the government buildings, there were few signs of non-Russians, and ethnic minorities had only token representation in the Kray Duma. However, we also saw plenty of examples of interethnic couples walking hand-in-hand through the parks, friends having dinner ;together, and many successful small businesses operated by minorities. -------------- -------------- The Government: There Are No Ethnic Problems in Stavropol -------------- -------------- ¶4. (SBU) The Governor's office was at pains to highlight the interethnic character and harmony of Stavropol Kray. "More than 100 nationalities have lived here together in peace for more than 150 years," said Aleksey Bednov, the governor's representative in Moscow. When the two Russian students were murdered in May, he said, the mass media spread rumors of a Chechen revenge killing. Stavropol Duma Deputy and local leader of the LDPR, Ilya Drozdor added, "These rumors were untrue, of course, but because that is how the Chechens are, the people readily believed it." (Note: video footage of the murder of the Russian students showed a Slavic-looking assailant.) ¶5. (SBU) Mayor Kuzmin said that the fighting in Lenin Square (in the city center, adjacent to the governor's office and the Kray Duma) was simply a case of students "blowing off steam" at the end of the school year. He said that there was in fact no ethnic character to the fighting, and that the mass media had sensationalized the story. He claimed that while the scale of the fighting took them by surprise, the fact that there had been no fighting before or since proved that there is not an ethnic tension problem in the city. -------------- Conspiracy Theories -------------- ¶6. (SBU) Some leaders did admit that there was a problem, but blamed it on "outsiders" who were stirring up troubles for their own ends. In a meeting of the Stavropol Kray Commission of Nationalities, the local Ossetian leader Alan Misikov presented a spirited defense of interethnic harmony in the Kray which was now threatened by outsiders. "There were 14 provocateurs who came from Moscow to start this trouble. They pretended to be Russian nationalists and tried to whip up racial hatred, but they failed." When pressed for details, he claimed that, "these provocateurs, who escaped MOSCOW 00003255 002.2 OF 002 back to Moscow, were sent by (the Other Russia's) Kasparov, Kasyanov, and the others, and funded from London." ¶7. (SBU) The Head of the Governor's Commission on Nationalities, Vasiliy Shnyukov agreed with Misikov and added that the authorities were investigating to find the identity of the provocateurs. He said that to control the situation, he and the Governor had called together leaders of several ethnic groups and told them to "get control of their people" and warned them not to be used by outsiders. Shnyukov told us that the leaders of the Chechen and Russian communities were regrettably unable to attend the meeting, but that they were full and willing participants in ensuring that there was peace among the groups. The leader of the Dagestani group clearly did not agree with this explanation, but was abruptly cut off by Shnyukov when he began to speak. ¶8. (SBU) Conspiracy theories were not confined to the government. The local leader of the NGO "Golos," Vasiliy Krasulya, proposed a different conspiracy theory, claiming that, "the Kremlin sent agents down to agitate and provoke the Chechens and instigate these clashes as a pretext to a clampdown on dissent. Their goal is to get people accustomed to these types of measures, to make these techniques familiar and acceptable." He noted that the demonstrations in the square on June 4 and 5 were not authorized, and that any other such demonstration lacking official sanction would have been quickly dispersed. (Biographical note: Krasulya, who was earlier active in Yabloko and an editor-in-chief of a Stavropol newspaper, successfully appealed his conviction for defaming Governor Chernogorov. In February 2007, the European Court of Human Rights overturned his conviction and awarded him EUR 4000 in damages.) -------------- -------------- A Simpler Explanation: Interethnic Tensions Boiled Over -------------- -------------- ¶9. (SBU) Comment: The simplest and most likely explanation is that there is indeed a fair amount of ethnic tension in the region between the 80 percent Russian majority and the multitude of Caucasian and other ethnic groups in the Kray, and that this tension boiled over in a mixture of ethnic hatred, rumor, drunkenness, and teenage exuberance. While things are quiet now, the probability of renewed violence remains, especially since there appears to be no government plan to address the root causes of the problem. RUSSELL