Extremist groups in Russia are threatening to mark Hitler’s birthday this weekend with violent attacks against foreigners. Embassies in Moscow have received ominous emails from a skinhead group, warning non-Russians to leave the country or face the consequences. An Afghan man died this week following a vicious beating in central Moscow, and rumours of future horrors are flying around the capital. President Putin has called for an end to extremism and the police are taking him at his word. In Moscow the metro is teeming with extra officers and patrols have been stepped up outside embassies, markets and student hostels for the duration of the weekend.
The police response this time is in line with the high profile of the threats, but ethnic minority groups are doubtful this support will last. Racial attacks are not a new phenomenon and the police, they say, are usually indifferent. “Today nobody believes that Russian militia or government can guarantee their security,” says Gabriel Kotchofa, of the Foreign Students Association of Russia. “We are asking one question - how many skinheads have been arrested? How many have been judged? What prison are they in? That means something”.
More telling perhaps is “Operation Foreigner”. In tandem with the anti-extremist campaign, Moscow police are operating a policy of stop-and-check that specifically targets non-Slavs and is clouded by allegations of illegal fines and random detentions. “Many people are being fined, or frightened. Their document are checked all the time, and not just in the streets,” says Alexander Osipov of the Memorial human rights group. “This practice violates any legal norms, any moral norms - it is a kind of institutional racism”.
The threats to diplomats have jolted the authorities into action for now, but if there's to be any hope of the extremists taking the message seriously there needs to be a simultaneous fight against prejudice at the very heart of the system.
