Russia: 20 people murdered last year in ideologically-motivated attacks

Last year a total of 20 people were murdered in Russia during ideologically-motivated attacks rooted in racism and xenophobia. That information has now been released by the non-governmental center for analysis, Sova, which has long monitored attacks on foreigners and immigrants there. 

The center says the situation is worst in Moscow and St. Petersburg. Last year Sova registered attacks in 32 of Russia’s 83 regions.

In addition to 20 victims losing their lives, at least 173 suffered injuries. "Moscow (eight dead and 53 injured) and St. Petersburg (three dead and 32 injured) continue to lead in terms of the level of violence. There were also many victims in Lipetsk Oblast (four dead, nine injured), in Chelyabinsk and Moscow Oblast (eight dead in each), and in Sverdlovsk Oblast (two dead, four injured)," the Czech News Agency quoted the center as saying.   

Analysts say the targets of these attacks are mainly immigrants from Central Asia (13 of whom died and 39 of whom were injured last year) and from the Caucusus (three dead, 26 injured). In comparison to previous years, the number of attacks against those confessing faiths other than Orthodox Christianity and against members of the gay and lesbian community rose significantly. 

Attacks on left-wingers and youth, who previously comprised a significant proportion of those victimized by such attacks, have fallen. Colonel-General Konstantin Romodanovsky, head of the Russian Federal Migration Service, which is responsible for immigrants, warned last month of the growth in nationalist intolerance and xenophobia. 

Romodanovsky believes foreigners themselves are often to blame for the enmity of local Russians, because instead of adapting to Russian conditions and rules, "they behave as they are accustomed to behaving back home", which he believes "justifiably annoys" Russians. Such sentiments are then skillfully exploited by right-wing radicals "with the aim of sparking nationalist hate and loathing of immigrants, and sometimes even racism."

Several million immigrants from the former Soviet republics have found livelihoods in Russia, often in professions in which Russians do not show much interest. Coexistence between the two groups is accompanied by conflicts.  

Last year in the Moscow quarter of Biryulyovo one such conflict all but turned into a pogrom after a young Muscovite was murdered by an immigrant from Azerbaijan. The authorities subsequently conducted raids against illegal immigrants and deported several thousands of them.  

News server newsru.com reports that in the town of Astrakhan on the Caspian Sea, rumors are spreading that a covered-up crime lies behind the suicide of a young woman who jumped off of a balcony there on Sunday. The girl allegedly was kidnapped by people from the Caucasus just after her wedding who kept her chained up for six months as a slave before she succeeded in escaping; she is said to have been unable to recover from the horrible experience.  

Local authorities allegedly decided to cover up the crime, fearing the news would spark unrest. News server newsru.com reminds its readers that while rumors about kidnapped women surface rather frequently in Astrakhan, reality is not actually so horrifying.  

Sova reports that 37 people were murdered during racist attacks in 2010. In 2009, the number was 84.