St. Petersburg Times - 04.19.2002

 

The St. Petersburg Times

Putin Declares War On Racist Violence

By Nabi Abdullaev

MOSCOW - With an outbreak of skinhead attacks from Moscow to Sakhalin and at least 10 foreign embassies issuing warnings ahead of Hitler's birthday this weekend, President Vladimir Putin on Thursday declared war against racially motivated violence.

"The growth of extremism is a serious threat to stability and public security in the country," Putin said in his state of the nation address. "I am referring first of all to those who under fascist and extremist slogans and symbols organize pogroms and beat people, while police and prosecutors offices have no effective instruments to punish the organizers and instigators of such crimes.

"They act, in fact, like organized crime groups, and should be subject to the same prosecution," he said.

The cabinet will soon send tough legislation aimed at fighting extremism to the parliament, he said.

The State Duma just Wednesday rejected a petition by liberal lawmakers to put hearings about extremism on the agenda for its fall session and voted down a proposal to invite Interior Minister Boris Gryzlov and General Prosecutor Vladimir Ustinov to report about extremist and nationalist groups.

Now the Duma will have no choice.

After Putin's address, Justice Minister Yury Chaika said his ministry would send a bill to combat extremism to the Duma within days. The bill - to allow tough charges to be brought against attackers and parties deemed to have inspired them - has already been drawn up with the presidential administration, he said.

"The latest events in Moscow, Krasnodar, Kostroma and other regions in the country demonstrate the urgency of the issue that will be regulated by the law on fighting extremism," he said, according to Interfax.

In the southern Krasnodar region, a renowned hotbed of Russian nationalism, a skinhead group raided an Armenian cemetery Wednesday night and tore down about 30 monuments, Interfax reported Thursday. Skinheads vandalized a synagogue in Kostroma on March 31.

Last week, a number of foreign embassies received e-mails warning of a "skinhead war" against foreigners, and the U.S. Embassy warned Americans to be on guard.

Then on Wednesday, the Afghan Embassy issued an appeal to the Foreign Ministry for a crackdown on racial violence, saying an Afghan interpreter has died from injuries inflicted in a skinhead attack Monday. The embassies of eight CIS countries in central Asia and the Transcaucasus had filed similar appeals with the Foreign Ministry on Monday.

Even the Japanese consulate and the Korean diaspora on the far-eastern island of Sakhalin have raised concerns about skinhead attacks. The police earlier this week received an anonymous phone call warning that 30 skinheads were planning to celebrate Hitler's birthday on Saturday by attacking Japanese and Koreans, Interfax reported.

Moscow police said they will be on the alert this weekend to prevent a repeat of the attacks that took place around April 20 last year. A group of skinheads trashed an Azeri outdoor market and stabbed a Chechen man to death.

Yury Korgunyuk, a political analyst at the Indem think tank, said that skinheads are a common part of the global urban landscape and that media and society are wrong to try to find a motive behind their attacks.

"Racial motives are not the only thing behind skinhead attacks. They fight with the homeless, drunkards and soccer fans," he said. "However, when the media tosses an idea out to them, they grasp it because it is much more attractive to think they are smashing a nose or cleaning out a pocket on a matter of principle."

Putin's stand against racially motivated attacks Thursday marks the strongest statement he has made to date on the issue. Nationalities Minister Vladimir Zorin expressed hope Thursday that something would be done.

"This movement [of skinheads] represents a supreme threat to the Russian people because its very dignity is being humiliated," he was quoted by Interfax as saying.