RUSSIAN XENOPHOBIA HAS ROOTS DEEPER THAN CRISIS

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 04 MOSCOW 000361

SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: DECL: 02/13/2019
TAGS: PGOV PHUM PINR PREL RS SOCI
SUBJECT: RUSSIAN XENOPHOBIA HAS ROOTS DEEPER THAN CRISIS

REF: 08 MOSCOW 3688

Classified By: Minister Counselor for Political Affairs Alice Wells; re
asons 1.4 (b/d).


1. (C) Summary. The recent wave of high-profile xenophobic
violence gripping Russia has raised concerns within Russia's
migrant community, second in size only to that of the United
States. While diaspora leaders lobbied to protect the
interests of their citizens, labor migrants have endured
increasing police scrutiny and negative public attention
against the backdrop of the economic crisis. In January
2009, 32 xenophobic attacks resulted in 16 confirmed deaths
(13 in Moscow alone). Many analysts and human rights
defenders linked the increase in xenophobic crime to
unemployment, while others ascribe it to greater enforcement
of existing legislation. However, one expert pointed to
Russia's historical discrimination against ethnic outsiders
as the true source of xenophobic violence. Russian officials
have attributed the reported increase in the number of crimes
to unemployed labor migrants, and proposed tough regulations
to preserve jobs for Muscovites while pushing labor migrants
out of Russia, steps which resonate with nationalist groups.
Both nationalist groups and the Russian Orthodox Church
proposed to create civil patrols to enforce the law, inciting
an outcry from human rights groups. End Summary.

Ethnic Diasporas Concerned By Wave of Hate Crimes
-------------- --------------


2. (C) In separate meetings, the representatives of the
Tajik, Armenian, and Azeri diasporas in Moscow reported that
the increasing number of xenophobic attacks, coupled with the
economic crisis, has complicated the situation for their
communities. Deputy Director of the NGO Tajikistan
Foundation Ghokaev Zhurayeva told us on December 12 that the
economic downturn brought more intense police scrutiny
(document checks of Tajik citizens on work visas) and
negative public attention for the Tajik community in Russia,
and she expected the situation to worsen. While applauding
her own organization's efforts to provide pro bono legal
advice to legal and illegal immigrants, she scolded weak
efforts by the Tajikistan embassy in Moscow to help its
citizens. Ghokaev added that her NGO had recently negotiated
the free repatriation from Russia of any deceased Tajik's
remains, an important feat considering the steep costs
associated with the return of the body and the typically
meager wages of family members back in Tajikistan (Note:
Ghokaev reported that Tajik Air promised to pay 50 percent of
all costs of repatriation, while the administration of
President Rakhmonov promised to pay the other 50 percent).
In 2008, 10 Tajiks died and 36 were wounded as a result of
xenophobic attacks, according to the Moscow Bureau for Human
Rights (MBHR).


3. (C) Executive Director of the All-Russian Azeri Congress
and former ambassador of Azerbaijan to Russia Eldar
Gulamovich Kyliyev told us on January 21 that xenophobic
attacks against migrant workers had shaken the Azeri
community in Russia, but most would not return to Azerbaijan.
Kyliyev reported that his Congress worked actively with
counterparts in the Kremlin to advocate for local Azeris,
evidenced by the massive reduction in the number of deported
Azeris in 2008 (approximately 500) compared to 2007 (over
5,000). He believed that the GOR understood the negative
economic and social effects that any organized program to
deport migrant workers would have on former Soviet republics,
but complained about the nonexistent efforts of law
enforcement agencies to stop xenophobic violence.


4. (C) The head of the Russian Union of Armenians and former
Soviet ambassador to Zimbabwe Georgiy Ter-Gazaryants
presented a similar view to us on December 18, noting that
although the majority of Armenians in Russia worked in small
manufacturing and light retail (as opposed to construction),
they still suffered from the economic slowdown and feared
attacks from xenophobic youth or nationalists. Even though
Armenian migrants tended to be more wealthy than their
Central Asian counterparts, his organization routinely
fielded calls from unemployed, destitute, or stranded
Armenian citizens in Russia, looking for the financial
assistance unavailable to them through Embassy channels.
However, he felt that few Armenians would return home because
of the crisis, choosing to live in fear with the prospects of
work rather than in the secure poverty of Armenia.


5. (SBU) The Kyrgyz Ambassador to Russia, Raimkul Attakurov,
took a different tack in confronting hate crimes, meeting
twice with nationalist group Slavic Union leader Dmitry
Demushkin to discuss xenophobic attacks against Kyrgyz
nationals. Attakurov offered to organize a round table
between Slavic Union leaders and Kyrgyz migrant workers at

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the press center for Moscow daily Moskovsky Komsomolets,
drawing sharp criticism from human rights NGO Memorial and
SOVA Center. High-profile legal cases against extremists
have continued to grab media attention in several regions
over the past two years, with the most recent occurring in
Altai Republic where authorities put a skinhead group called
"The Wolves of Odin" on trial for ten ethnic hatred attacks
and two murders since May 2007.

Why Are Hate Crimes Increasing?
--------------


6. (SBU) The wave of violence against ethnic minorities has
continued in Russia, with 32 reported xenophobic attacks
resulting in 16 confirmed deaths and 23 injuries in January
2009 (13 of these deaths reported in Moscow),according to
MBHR. Human Rights Watch released a report on February 10
labeling the economic crisis as an exacerbating factor in the
rise in hate-motivated violence. Moscow police chief
Vladimir Pronin told a news conference on January 21 that
while nationalism-inspired attacks in Moscow increased 30
percent from 2007 to 2008, an unquantifiable percentage of
that increase could be attributed to greater use of Russian
Criminal Code Article 282 on Inciting Ethnic Hatred. MBHR
Director Aleksandr Brod told us on February 9 that law
enforcement officials convicted 205 people in 2008 for
xenophobic crimes, a sign that authorities placed new
emphasis on curbing violence against minority communities.
Many other human rights activists, including Brod, have
predicted an increase in xenophobic crimes in 2009 as a
result of the economic crisis, with Moscow and St. Petersburg
registering as the main centers of violence.


7. (SBU) SOVA Center Director Aleksandr Verkhovskiy told us
on February 3 that no information objectively pointed to an
increase in anti-immigrant crime as a result of an economic
downturn. Rather, he attributed Russian xenophobic activity
to Russian attitudes -- especially of young Russians -- of
ethnic superiority towards "outsiders" and scant police
attention to hate crimes prior to the recent surge of
violence. In a January 29 interview with the United States
Holocaust Museum, he said that "the majority (55 percent) of
people support the idea that ethnic Russians have to have
some privileges, and support the idea to limit rights for
certain ethnic groups." Russia's Interior Minister Rashid
Nurgaliyev reported on December 24 that law enforcement
agencies identified 53,900 teenagers as adherents to
"criminal, antisocial, and extremist" groups in Russia, and
openly admitted that these same agencies have opened files on
202,700 teenagers since 2005 -- a worrying trend to
Nurgaliyev.


8. (SBU) Public opinion reports have indicated that most
Russians do not consider the large number of migrant workers
to be problematic. A January 30 Levada Center poll found
that only 9 percent of those surveyed pointed to the influx
of migrants as alarming, a one percent decrease from a
similar January 2008 poll. However, only 6 percent
considered the worsening of interethnic relations and the
rise of nationalism in Russia to be a troublesome trend, down
two percent from 2008. Verkhovskiy associated the recent
negative use of the word "immigrant" in the press and on the
street to public fear about the economic crisis, but did not
expect the public to join nationalist groups as a result of
the downturn, saying that these groups "find little support"
in Russia. His own colleague, SOVA Deputy Director Galina
Kozhevnikova, offered a slightly different interpretation,
predicting that while nationalist groups attracted few
supporters, average Russians disaffected by the crisis could
pose problems for migrant workers in the street.

Government: Crimes Committed by Migrants Rising
-------------- --


9. (SBU) Russian government officials have continued to link
the percentage growth in reported crimes and the increasing
number of labor migrants when discussing Russia's economic
troubles. Medvedev, in a February 6 address to the Russian
Interior Ministry, challenged officials to monitor spikes in
post-crisis crime rates and improve their success rates in
solving crimes (1.5 million out of 3.2 million reported
crimes were solved in 2008),and cautioned against allowing
"speculators" to complicate the situation further. He
delivered these comments after a flood of government reports
tied the influx of migrants to worsening crime. The Russian
Interior Ministry reported on December 27 that the number of
crimes committed by Tajiks from 2003 to 2007 had more than
doubled, from 4,100 documented crimes in 2003 to 8,500 in
2007, while crimes against Tajiks had decreased by 10 percent
(and against all migrants decreased by 4.8 percent) in 2008.
First Deputy Minister of Internal Affairs (MID) Police
Colonel-General Mikhail Sukhodolskiy reported on December 25

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an 8 percent increase in crimes committed by foreign workers,
attributing one-half of all violent felonies to "new
arrivals." In perspective, however, felonies, misdemeanors,
and infractions committed by migrants in Russia accounted for
only 3.1 percent of the total number of crimes in 2008, a
small number considering that estimates on the number of
migrants in Russia have ranged from 4 million to 13 million
(2.8 percent to 9.2 percent of the population).


10. (SBU) Many government officials proposed to crack down
on labor migrants, ostensibly to offset the negative effects
of the crisis on the native population. Moscow Mayor Yuriy
Luzhkov tried to pacify Muscovites, announcing on December 30
that Moscow natives would receive preferential access to city
government jobs. On December 30, United Russia Duma member
Andrei Isayev suggested penalties, including criminal
charges, for employers who hire illegal immigrants. Experts
from Moscow State University have told us on several
occasions that the "migrants steal Russian jobs" argument
touted by United Russia's youth group Molodaya Gvardiya holds
no water, stating that Russians uniformly stigmatize the
dirty and dangerous jobs employing migrants, feigning no
interest in such work. Regardless, the Federal Registration
Service (FRS) proposed to adjust legislation to allow legal
migrants to reside in Russia for only 90 days, causing
enforcement and financial problems for border guards charged
with deportation at 1,000 USD per deportee, according to a
Gazeta article on December 25. Communist Party Central
Committee Secretary Sergey Obukhov said that the government
does not have a coordinated plan for dealing with the large
number of unemployed migrants in Russia, and even suggested
that the FRS may have faced some legal proceedings for trying
to amend the law, delaying the rollout.

Nationalists, Orthodox Preparing For Worst
--------------


11. (SBU) While nationalist groups like the Movement Against
Illegal Immigration (DPNI) and the Slavic Union have toned
down their rhetoric since their failed November 4
demonstrations, nationalist leaders have called for the
establishment of armed civil patrols to enforce law and order
on Russia's streets. DPNI leader Alexander Belov told
Interfax news on January 19 that he encouraged its members to
obtain government permits for carrying non-lethal weapons in
order to "take precautions" as Russia faced an upsurge in
crime because of the crisis. He also noted that DPNI hoped
to create volunteer units in Moscow and Nizhny Novgorod to
monitor criminal activity, a proposal actively rejected by
Moscow police but apparently allowed in Nizhny Novgorod.
Human rights defender and head of Civil Assistance Svetlana
Gannushkina admonished the announcement, believing that
"rocking the ethnic relations situation threatens Russia with
an imminent break-up" and likening DPNI vigilante groups to
"Hitler's Brownshirts."


12. (C) On November 19, Deputy Director for the Russian
Orthodox Church's (ROC) Department of External Affairs
Vsevolod Chaplin also suggested the Church's interest in the
establishment of Orthodox street patrols to ensure order.
Chaplin said that all religious groups should have the right
to organize groups to "battle hooligans with basic means,
such as rubber clubs," an idea readily supported by DPNI's
Belov and Nashi's Orthodox Movement leader Boris Yakemenko,
who claimed that "Orthodox know precisely what is right and
what is wrong; therefore, participation in such patrols will
be correct." Gannushkina offered similar skepticism to the
ROC suggestion, believing that "Buddhist patrols would be a
better starting point since Buddhists are more peaceful."
Geraldine Fagan told us on February 12 that the sudden
December 5 death of Patriarch Aleksey II, and the subsequent
election and enthronement of Patriarch Kirill, forced ROC
leaders to shelve temporarily plans for Orthodox patrols.

Comment
--------------


13. (C) Western and domestic media attention to the surge in
xenophobic attacks, cast as a by-product of current economic
tensions, fails to address the core sense of ethnic
superiority over "occupiers" that many Russians feel, despite
calls for tolerance from the Kremlin and the human rights
community. Russia's demographic need for migrant labor
creates continuous opportunities for conflict, a "perfect
storm" well beyond the preventative means of simple police
actions. Certainly, high-profile sentences against violent
nationalist groups suggest a more serious government tack,
but more likely reflects a wake-up call to law enforcement
after ignoring the problem for years. How the GOR approaches
nationalist groups and xenophobic violence will indicate its
philosophical stance. FSB Director Aleksandr Bortnikov told
participants at a National Anti-Terrorist Committee (NAC)

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meeting on December 23 that the NAC would discuss ways in
2009 to prevent extremism from growing into terrorism.
BEYRLE