LAST week, President Vladmir Putin introduced a draft law in the State Duma intended to combat extremism. The draft would subject those found guilty of forming a group with the purpose of committing crimes against people based on the victims' social, religious or racial background to imprisonment for up to four years or to a fine of about $1,000 - 100 minimum wages. While a law of this kind should have been passed long ago, I still think that it's better late than never. My question is: Will it do anything to change the situation in Russia with regard to racism and hate crimes?
It's a good question in a country where a significant portion of the population react positively to news such as skinhead attacks in outdoor markets on people from the Caucasus - litsa kavkazskoi natsionalnosty, or faces of Caucasian nationality, as these people are referred to here.
It's not a big secret that many Russians, particularly those living in larger cities like St. Petersburg and Moscow, feel negatively toward those - Russian citizens or not - who come from the south of the country. One only has to count the number of ads for apartments for rent that contain the line "calls
from people from the Caucasus will not be accepted," to get a sense of how widespread these attitudes are. It's alright to buy fruit and vegetables from these same people in the city's markets, as long as nobody has to rent them a place in which to live.
There's a degree of hypocrisy in this and, I think, in the government introducing the new legislation as well.
My question for the government is: Who helped propagate this negative image in the first place? You can't suggest that a set of people are untrustworthy, liars and terrorists without sending extremists the message that harming that same people is somehow officially sanctioned.
When people like Putin and Moscow Mayor Yury Luzhkov emphasized that they were "not excluding Chechen involvement" after the bombing of apartment buildings and a subway underpass in Moscow in 1999 and 2000, without also emphasizing that there is no actual proof or evidence to support this position, it just feeds this kind of attitude.
Xenophobic attitudes are not restricted to people from the Caucasus either. I hear a good number of Russians voice negative attitudes about anyone not from here. Foreigners should be disliked, as the explanation goes, because they have a higher standard of living here or because they try to apply their own
attitudes to Russian lifestyles
I was in a cab with two Swiss journalists recently and the driver, in Russian, told me that the two should "have the s**t beaten out of them." He couldn't give any specific reason - he just hates foreigners. In a gesture of magnanimity, he did accept the money they gave him for the ride.
In another example, I got a call on April 21 from a British friend who is in
St. Petersburg for a year to study. She told me that she had been warned by people not to leave the student's dormitory that day because there was a dangerous skinhead situation in the city. Listening to a friend talk about being afraid to go outside because of this type of xenophobic hatred really made it plain to me that it is an issue that has to be addressed.
The introduction of the new legislation is a step in addressing this issue. At least the government is confirming that the problem does exist and could get out of control if measures are not taken to deal with it.
But, I'm not sure that introducing laws and penalties is the most effective solution - especially if the punishment is meted out by a government that is
involved in creating the problem.
I think that government figures have to act responsibly in making comments concerning people and groups that are not ethnic Russian, and people from the Caucasus in particular.
The derogatory use of the word chyorny, or "black" for people from the Caucasus has only been strengthened by the attitude of the government over the last few years. I'm afraid that, if the government doesn't seriously try
to deal with the problem - both by enforcing the new law, if it is passed, and by changing its own way of doing things - then the victims of these attitudes may just decide to deal with the problem themselves.