Posted on January 14, 2011 - by Venik

Russians are not racists, we just want fair treatment | Alexey Kovalev

Inflamed reports of bloodthirsty skinheads in Moscow obscure the concerns Russians have about a different kind of nationalism

I grew up in a quiet town in suburban Moscow, which was perfectly like any other place except for the fact that it hosted the campuses of three colleges and academies, two of which were especially popular with foreign students. “Foreign” in Soviet times meaning “citizen of a country aligned with the USSR”. You still can meet doctors and engineers with near-perfect Russian anywhere from Afghanistan to Zambia, and they will have the fondest memories of their student days.

Tarasovka’s Moscow Institute for Technologies was especially popular with African students. When you disembarked from a train and walked to your dacha, you were much more likely to meet a group of towering basketball players from Ghana than a classic Russian babushka with her shawl and walking stick. I still remember one particularly striking scene from when I once went to have a swim in the Klyazma, a historical river that runs through the town: I saw a perfect recreation of Viktor Vasnetsov’s Alionushka – the trees, rocks and reeds, even the girl sitting in that exact sombre, contemplative pose. The only difference from the Peredvizhniki‘s masterpiece of mystical realism was that the heroine had black skin, with her hair woven in hundreds of tiny braids. It was a perfect impression of the kind of cultural mix that I, as well as other natives of this quiet Russian rural town, had been exposed to for decades.

I grew up to believe that I was living in a truly international, welcoming country.

I shiver with anger when reading “expert opinions”, both homegrown and foreign, stating that Russia is inherently racist or “haunted” with xenophobia. Almost every report from Moscow that mentions ethnic unrest seems to suggest that the city’s streets are teeming with bloodthirsty skinheads looking for another not-Slavic-enough victim, and acres of newsprint are given to what I call “Nazi porn”: hyper-closeup, photographs of young men in balaclavas giving the Roman salute.

What I have is a completely different picture. Several of my friends have been mugged, stabbed, shot at and beaten in Moscow in the last few months. In every single case, the perpetrators were groups of young men from various Caucasian republics, predominantly Dagestan, and in most cases they were released from the station without even a warning. Most Caucasian republics have their “special representatives” in other regions of Russia ready to help their compatriots in any kind of trouble, which in most cases means pulling them out of a police station. Dmitry Sokolov-Mitrich, a journalist from the Izvestia paper, argues that these special representatives’ involvement prevents proper integration of Caucasian youth into Russian society and creates a “culture of impunity”. Alexander Mityayev, also a journalist, who was beaten up with his friends in a cafe by a group of Caucasians, says the police are doing their best – to avoid starting a criminal investigation. The victims are often advised to drop charges, and told: “You know it’s not going anywhere, so let’s not waste each other’s time.”

I’m not saying the danger of the Russian far-right does not exist. But there is also a different sort of nationalism that works in just the opposite way. From humiliating “alien passports” in the Baltic states to violent, sometimes lethal – as in the case of Maxim Sychev, who died following conflict with his Ingush schoolmate in Rostov – hazing in student dorms and barracks, many Russians know perfectly well what it means to be on the receiving end of ethnic persecution. The few remaining Russian Orthodox churches in Northern Caucasus exist under the constant threat of being desecrated – precisely for being Russian. But hardly anyone among the Russian authorities, western media or human rights campaigners seems to acknowledge those problems.

Western reporting of ethnic issues in Russia is not only unfair and one-sided, it also contributes to the problem. Russian authorities, concerned with the country’s image in the runup to the , react to scare stories by cracking down on relatively moderate rightwingers, further radicalising their already dangerous brethren in the far corner, but completely ignore the cause of unrest out of fear of being labelled racist.

This is what’s driving Russians, even those previously completely apolitical, to rallies such as the one on Manezhnaya Square (in fact, there is a whole new protest movement brewing, with plans to hold monthly rallies on the 11th day of each month), not their inherent hatred for anyone whose skin is a different colour. Of course, the most worrying consequence is that these rallies are being hijacked by the genuinely malicious far-right with their immigrant-hating agenda.

But we are not racist. As (almost) any foreigner discovers sooner or later, Russians, although seemingly cold and rude, can turn out to be the most warm and welcoming people on earth. Yes, we haven’t yet adopted some of the cultural sensibilities of the west, and what counts as friendly banter in Russia may be considered a gross racial insult elsewhere – but that doesn’t make us xenophobic. The only thing we really hate is unfairness. We don’t want blood; we want fair justice for everybody, no matter if they have a “special representative” or a powerful diaspora to back them up.

It’s down to Russian authorities to deal with that, but in the meantime, please stop painting us as evil.

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