Russian Democracy: Griffin Style

Now where have they hidden that vodka?

Nick Griffin has recently returned from Moscow following an invitation for him to be an independent elections advisor in last week’s Russian parliamentary elections.

Griffin obviously couldn’t believe his luck. Known to like the food and drink, Griffin was in hog heaven with copious amounts of food and free flowing vodka along with dancing Cossacks being the order of the day.

Perhaps it was the vodka or his own sense of self importance that clouded Griffin’s judgement when it came to the actual reason he was in Russia, to give an impartial view of the Russian election. Or maybe Moscow just wanted a few gullible idiots to churn out their version of events on state television?

The election has been widely condemned as being loaded in favour of the ruling “United Russia” party, with numerous accounts of vote rigging, harassment and state interference. Yet Nick Griffin declared that there were “A handful of small technical failings in a few polling stations that didn't affect the validity of the election”.

Posting on Twitter he also said that “UK Electoral Commission could learn a lot from the Russian set up to monitor & improve elections.”

Really? Do we want the Russian system that has seen opposition leaders such as the veteran liberal politician Boris Nemtsov, a former deputy prime minister turned vocal government opponent rounded up and detained? The same Russian system that banned a number of political parties from even standing in the elections? The same system that arrested two well known anti corruption bloggers and placed them in jail?

EU Foreign Policy Chief Catherine Ashton said “Reports of procedural violations are a serious concern". She also highlighted the "lack of media impartiality, a lack of separation between party and state, and the harassments of independent monitoring attempts".

A report from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe details alleged attempts to stuff ballot boxes, manipulate voter lists and harass election monitors. The group, which monitors and promotes democracy and human rights in Europe, cited the lack of an independent body running the election or impartial news media.

Yet Griffin wrote “Eye opening being in a country that has set up a democratic system recently and with intention of being honest & transparent. UK elections are a bent farce by comparison.”

The election results triggered two days of protests in Moscow and St Petersburg with several thousand protestors taking to the streets. Russian police are thought to have arrested hundreds of the protestors as anger over allegations of official corruption and economic stagnation started to boil over.

United Russia, the party of Prime Minister Vladimir Putin remains the largest party, albeit with a smaller majority and his reputation tarnished.

Is this the sort of democracy Nick Griffin and the BNP would like in this country?

Of course it is.

Hope not hate

The Germ of Hate Spreads in Russia

The terror attack on Moscow's main airport last week has fuelled the flames of xenophobia in Russia. The Kremlin isn't intervening to halt the trend that could cause deep rifts in the country's multiethnic society.

The wreckage at Moscow's Domodedovo Airport had hardly been removed before a young man in St. Petersburg had incorporated the attack into his election campaign.

Andrey Kuznetsov, a computer engineer with neatly parted brown hair, is campaigning for a seat in the regional parliament as a representative of the extreme right-wing party Movement Against Illegal Immigration (DPNI). Kuznetsov wants to see guest workers that have come to St. Petersburg from Central Asia and the Caucasus expelled or at least required "to live in certain neighborhoods, so that they can be monitored more easily."

On Tuesday, the day after the suicide bombing at Domodedovo Airport, which has been traced to groups in the Caucasus, DPNI supporters protested in St. Petersburg's Kupchino neighborhood. One of the party's activists had been stabbed and wounded by an Azerbaijani.

"The war in the Caucasus has arrived in our cities," says Kuznetsov. "We send them money, and they send us terrorists." President Dmitry Medvedev's strategy of trying to pacify the region with billions in investment is a "bad joke," says Kuznetsov. "The experiences in Germany and France show that Muslims do not assimilate. We have to keep them out."

On the Brink of Disintegration?

The right-wing extremists' demands are also meeting with approval among ordinary citizens. A radical form of Islam is gaining the upper hand in the Caucasus. More than 40 percent of Russians favor the secession of the region. The number of attacks there has doubled within a year, and hundreds of thousands of ethnic Russians have fled to Russia. The wars the Kremlin waged in Chechnya and Georgia were in vain, and today the majority of Russians no longer want Chechens, Dagestanis, Ingush and Balkars as fellow citizens.

Twenty years after the collapse of the Soviet Union, terrorism is challenging not only Moscow's control of the Caucasus but also Russia's future as a multiethnic society. The country is home to more than 100 nationalities. Muslims make up 20 million of a population of 141 million, and seven million guest workers contribute to prosperity in Russia. In surveys, however, 36 percent of Moscow residents say that they feel "hatred" toward Chechens.

The writer Victor Erofeyev believes that "extreme nationalism is the germ that could lead to the country's disintegration." The nationalist-communist weekly newspaper Zavtra even sees a civil war on the horizon.

Last year, 37 people were reportedly killed in racist acts of violence against non-Russians. In October, the mayor of the town of Khotkovo near Moscow announced a "self-cleansing" campaign. Ironically, it was on the Day of National Unity that right-wing extremists set fire to a dormitory for foreigners and businesses fired all non-Slavic employees. In December, a radical mob staged a protest in front of the Kremlin, complete with Hitler salutes, and hunted down Muscovites with southern features -- all because a Russian football fan had been stabbed by people from the Caucasus. Prime Minister Vladimir Putin laid flowers at the grave of the victim and threatened to tighten immigration rules.

Playing with Xenophobia

A few days after Putin's appearance, the Moscow police chief announced that he intended "to examine whether liberal and democratic principles are truly compatible with the interests of the public." He wants to reintroduce the strict Soviet-era registration system, which significantly limited unrestricted movement around the country.

However, betting on the chauvinistic feelings of a deeply insecure nation has always been risky. In 2003, the Kremlin launched the nationalist Rodina (Motherland) Party, headed by the charismatic politician Dmitry Rogozin, Russia's current ambassador to NATO in Brussels. When Rodina promptly captured 9.2 percent of the vote, Kremlin planners dropped their support for the party because of its "xenophobia."

At the end of the Soviet Union, the Kremlin and the intelligence service created the LPDR, the party of nationalist Vladimir Zhirinovsky, to lure away voters from the communists. Zhirinovsky has since become the vice-chairman of the Russian parliament. Four days before the airport bombing, Zhirinovsky was given several minutes of airtime on state-owned television to agitate against people from the Caucasus, calling them "those thieves and speculators who neither work nor learn anything." The ultranationalist his face beet-red, shouted into the microphone: "We shit on the Caucasus. We've been fed up with it for a long time."

Neither Medvedev nor Putin called Zhirinovsky to order.

Spiegel Online

Thanks to NewsHound for the heads-up

Neo-Nazi skinheads jailed in Russia for racist killings

A court in Moscow has sentenced nine members of a neo-Nazi skinhead gang to prison terms of up to 23 years.

The gang members, most in their late teens, were found guilty of a string of brutal and very public murders. The skinheads targeted people of Central Asian origin and posted videos of their attacks on the Internet.

Russia has seen a surge of racially-motivated attacks in recent years. In 2009 alone, neo-Nazis are believed to have killed more than 70 people. The nine neo-Nazis called themselves "The White Wolves". They sought out Central Asian migrants, and attacked them in Moscow's back streets. They clubbed some of their victims to death with wooden planks and killed others by repeatedly stabbing them with knives and screwdrivers.

In one case, a glazier from Kyrgyzstan was stabbed 73 times, as the gang members shouted "Russia for the Russians!" and filmed the murder on their mobile phones. The jury heard the gang was responsible for at least 11 killings, possibly even more.

And so - after five months of deliberations - came the prison terms: Twenty-three years for the gang leader and up to nine years for the others - the maximum prison term allowed in Russia for underage criminals. Human rights activists have welcomed the sentencing. They admit that the police are now cracking down on skinhead gangs. But even so, last year alone, dozens were killed, and hundreds injured simply for not looking Slavic, and for speaking with a foreign accent.

BBC

Neo-Nazis Murder Schoolgirl in Irkutsk

Neo-Nazis killed a 16-year-old girl in Irkutsk, Russia because they thought she was a member of an anti-fascist group, according to an October 17, 2008 report by the Jewish.ru web site. On October 18, three neo-Nazis beat Olga Rukosyla to death after noticing that she had red laces on her shoes, a sign of membership in an anti-fascist group. Witnesses, however, assert that she merely wore the laces as a fashion statement rather than as a sign of any political affiliation. Neo-Nazis and anti-fascists often clash violently in Russia; it is not clear from the report if police have made any arrests in connection with the murder.

UCSJ

Solidarity with anti-fascists in Russia

“International support is vital and valued” explains St Petersburg anti-fascist activist Bruno Garmson

It is not easy being an anti-fascist in Russia at the moment. We are under constant attack from racists and fascists and we receive little or no protection from the authorities. Several of our activists have been murdered in recent years and even when the attackers are caught they often walk free with suspended sentences.

The rapid decline of Russia’s fledgling democracy, marked by gross violations of human rights during the government’s Chechen campaigns, the granting by parliament of unprecedented powers to the secret service, the abolition of elected executives (governors, mayors etc), the introduction of censorship and political show-trials and murders have changed the political atmosphere. This has enabled nazis and their extreme-rightist allies to stage campaigns as well as using nationalism as an alibi to commit murders, many of which go unpunished.

Outside Russia, this is not always easy to grasp.

In the heroic stories about the Great Patriotic War of 1941-1945 against the Nazis that flicker almost nightly on Russian television screens, it is nowadays hard to find any other motives described than “defending the motherland”.

Unfortunately, there are few eyewitnesses left who can describe the genuine anti-fascist enthusiasm they felt for the Republican cause in the Spanish Civil War or spell out the common conviction, held during the Second World War, that the Nazis intended to enslave and exterminate Russian citizens as subhumans and explain how, therefore, the anti-fascist struggle was above all a battle of humanity against fascist barbarism.

Today’s Russian nazis use official nationalist myths about the war both as proof of Russia’s superiority and as an example of how the Stalin regime misled the whole Russian people, sacrificing millions of soldiers and civilians against Hitler’s anti-Bolshevik crusade to “liberate” the Russians. Ignorance about Soviet history, lack of a proper analysis of the theory and practice of fascism and the reduction of the term “anti-fascism” to mean simply a nationalistic fight against the enemies of Russia make it difficult to oppose such obvious lies.

Real anti-fascism, challenging nationalism and facing down nazism, is a risky course of action. Such “dissident” behaviour is viewed as “suspicious opposition” to the policies of President Vladimir Putin and the state. Any person displaying such behaviour is regarded as an “extremist”, like the nazis. Openly opposing fascism means being targeted by the violent gangs of nazis who patrol the streets of Russia’s cities looking for victims to attack in broad daylight.

Young anti-fascists have started to fight back. The courageous stance of young Russian anti-fascists against the growing street violence by nazi gangs is often the subject of court proceedings, which have proved inconsistent. The outcome of trials of nazi killers tends to depend on what charges are brought by the public prosecutors: almost always hooliganism (violently disrupting public order) or being involved in hooliganism.

There is no real pressure from the Kremlin or Duma (parliament) on public prosecutors to use hate crime charges and there is a widespread practice of negotiation between judges, prosecutors and defence lawyers to achieve cooperation in trials. Finally and crucially, there is a lack of pressure from anti-fascists who, because there is no deeply rooted democratic culture, rarely get involved with investigations or court proceedings.

Here in St Petersburg, anti-fascists have actively helped the public prosecutors as expert witnesses since the early 1990s and have run some successful campaigns. The nazis reacted by murdering Nikolai Girenko in 2004, then the most visible anti-fascist specialist supporting the public prosecutors in cases against fascists.

Now a younger generation of anti-fascists is emerging to oppose the nazis in the courts and on the streets. Their battles are essential – the alternative is capitulation – but expensive. It costs a great deal of money to participate in court proceedings even when the lawyers act pro bono. In the case against the murderers of Timur Kacharava, anti-fascist funding enabled his family and friends to help put away his killers.

In Russia, there are no big trade unions, labour movements or long-standing anti-racist structures with democratic anti-fascist traditions that we can turn to for help. As a result, we depend on ourselves and the anti-fascist movement internationally.

Support from our brothers, sisters, comrades and friends abroad is ever more vital and valued.

Searchlight

Attack on hate-crime expert linked to neo-Nazi activist trial (Russia)

New information is bolstering claims that a recent attack in St. Petersburg against one of Russia's leading hate-crimes experts was aimed at coercing her to change her testimony in a high-profile trial. Valentina Uzunova, 59, who frequently testifies as an expert witness in cases relating to hate crimes and xenophobic activity, was attacked on June 19 by a masked woman at roughly 6 p.m. as she was leaving the family home of a colleague who was murdered three years ago. According to a report in the St. Petersburg Times, Uzunova's assailant repeatedly struck her on the head before stealing several court documents relating to the trial of Vladislav Nikolsky, at which Uzunova was set to testify the following day. Nikolsky is charged with distributing extremist literature and forming a nationalist organization. Testimony from human rights workers like Uzunova is often the key factor in securing convictions under Russia's hate crimes statutes. Using violence to dissuade them from testifying could have a chilling effect on an integral barrier against anti-Semitic and neo-Nazi violence in Russia. Most cases of anti-Semitic violence are not prosecuted under the stringent statutes for which stricter penalties are mandated, but rather are treated as "hooliganism." By most expert accounts, incidents of anti-Semitic and racially motivated violence have continued to rise steadily in recent years. In May, at the fifth round of Russia-EU Human Rights Consultations in Berlin, the Moscow-based nonprofit SOVA Center presented bleak data on the matter. The center monitors hate crimes and advocates for stronger legislation and awareness of xenophobia in Russia.

According to SOVA, Russia experienced a 30 percent increase in attacks this winter over the preceding year. Between January and April, 172 attacks occurred, resulting in 23 fatalities. "Over the reviewed period we have observed an increase of racist and neo-Nazi violence which, unfortunately, the law enforcement agencies have not been able to stem, especially in the main centers of violence, such as Moscow and St. Petersburg," according to the report. Uzunova, of the group For a Russia Without Racism, was attacked following a visit to the family of Nikolai Girenko on the third anniversary of his slaying. Girenko, an expert on ethnic minorities, was shot to death through his apartment door. As in many cases involving activists, no one has been charged in his murder. Alexander Vinnikov, a senior official at the St. Petersburg Union of Scientists and a co-worker of Uzunova's, told the St. Petersburg Times the Nikolsky investigation was nearing completion. "Uzunova had enough evidence in her hands for the judge to convict Nikolsky during the next hearing," Vinnikov said. The attack on Uzunova has angered the human rights community over a perceived lack of police protection. Uzunova had requested police protection after receiving repeated threats, including a recent anonymous nighttime call in which the caller threatened to kill Uzunova and her family if she did not help to clear a defendant now facing extremism charges in court.

Police rejected her request, citing a lack of credible evidence. They found the public telephone from which the call was made, but could not establish the caller's identity. For her colleagues and religious officials in the city, though, there is no question that the attack was coordinated by extremists. Yuri Tabak, an expert on anti-Semitic and xenophobic literature at the Moscow Bureau for Human Rights, spoke with JTA about what he views as a recent sharp increase in violent activity. Tabak, who does not testify in open court, believes that while the police would like to do more to protect activists, they are hampered by a lack of resources. "The level of xenophobic attacks and xenophobia is rising very quickly and definitively," he said. "Our police are not so efficient and they don't want to do much. It's not because exactly they don't want to do anything, but they have no resources, not enough money or qualified people to do it." Menachem Mendel Pevzner, the chief Chabad rabbi in St. Petersburg, insisted during a conversation with JTA that the attack was related to Uzunova's work. "The fact that certain people are not happy with the work these people were doing is quite obvious," Pevzner said. "The fact that it's hurting people is also obvious." The climate of violence in St. Petersburg, the rabbi said, was much calmer now than during the lawlessness directly following the collapse of the Soviet Union. But, he added, while the police have the best of intentions, they often don't take issues of anti-Semitic and interethnic violence as seriously as they should. "Although they're trying to do the best they can," Pevzner said, "they're not accepting that they have to be more on top of the situation."

Human-rights activists as well those in so-called "anti-fascist" organizations in Russia frequently are the targets of violence, as in the case of Timur Kacharava, a student activist murdered by skinheads in St. Petersburg in 2005. In most cases the authorities turn a blind eye. "It does not help that only human rights groups are aware of the issues; ordinary people do not get the picture at all," said Natalya Yevdokimova, an adviser to Sergei Mironov, the chairman of the Council of Federation, the upper chamber of the Federal Assembly - the parliament of the Russian Federation. "The circumstances of and around these crimes, which are often classified as robberies, hooliganism or homicide, remain obscure to them."

ICARE

Family of seven still search for peace after five years of race hate

Eight-year-old Khalid Mohamed was helping his parents move into their new home when some older boys on bikes started chasing his family and shouting racist abuse.

As the bewildered Somali family tried to settle into their new house in north London, adult neighbours joined in the heckling. "Fuck off Pakis. We don't want you here," they yelled. "We will burn the house down."

Since that day five years ago, the Mohamed family - who fled war-torn Mogadishu before Khalid was born - has barely gone 48 hours without enduring abuse. Stones are thrown at their house at night; lit cigarettes pushed through their letterbox. Khalid's father, Abdalla, 46, has been grabbed around the throat in front of his severely disabled daughter and terrified wife. His car has been vandalised on three occasions. His wife, Asha, is called a "baldy Paki" because she wears a scarf.

Two men were arrested on separate occasions, one of whom was found to be carrying a knife. Both were released without charge and continue to live close by.

The family lives trapped inside, fearfully awaiting the next attack and convinced that one day their tormentors will fulfil their promise to torch their home. The five children, the youngest of whom is seven, cannot even play in the garden.

As his parents can speak little English Khalid, now 13, has grown used to being called out of class at school so that he can telephone the police to report the latest attack. "We are petrified. We don't sleep at night because we are scared something is going to happen. It happens on a daily basis and all night. My mum cries every day. She believes them when they say they are going to burn down the house. They look like they could do it," he explained.

Today, the sombre-faced youngster will speak at a conference to highlight an alarming rise in hate crimes across Europe and the launch of Coalition Europe, a new human rights network. Alongside an impressive array of leading politicians and campaigners from 13 different nations gathered at the House of Commons, the nervous, slightly built boy will talk of the terror and abuse his family has endured.

In Britain, 48,000 racist incidents are reported to the police each year - almost 14,000 in the London area alone - and the figures are rising steadily. The rest of Europe has seen an even more dramatic rise, even though they do not record cases as stringently as Britain has since the Stephen Lawrence inquiry.

Suresh Grover, of The Monitoring Group, which supports victims of racism, said: "These violent acts range from desecrations, damage to property and physical assaults and murder. The racist killing of Dr Nithesh Kumar in St Petersburg last September was a shocking reminder of the growth of racial violence aimed at any 'dark skinned' individuals living in Russia. The country has recorded 84 racist murders in the past four years, 54 in 2006 alone, with a 17 per cent rise in racist incidents to 537."

Similarly, the growth in hate crimes has been a major problem in Germany since unification in 1990. It is estimated that over 100 people have been killed by neo-Nazi groups since then. Last year the German government recorded 958 hate crimes, a 10 per cent rise. But campaigners believe that - as these countries do not have the same comprehensive recording procedure as Britain - most attacks go unreported.

Donatella Linguiti, the Italian undersecretary of state for equal rights, will join the prominent human rights lawyers Peter Herbert and Imran Khan and other figures from across Europe to call for a more stringent examination of the problem so that far more can be done to tackle it.

Mr Grover said: "Over the last few years the police have recorded an average of just over 45,000 racially motivated attacks annually, now up to 48,000. Community groups across Britain have witnessed an alarming growth of Islamophobia and anti-Muslim racism since 11 September. This unique pan-European initiative will demand action from all European governments and that they bury their inertia on this issue."

For Khalid and his family, the drive to combat racist abuse is painfully close to home. The attacks have become so frequent that Mr Mohamed has set up CCTV on his house to try to gather evidence as the police have repeatedly refused to prosecute. He has multiple locks and an alarm. His children all carry mobile telephones in case of attack.

At night he watches and waits for the groups of men who stand outside his house hurling rocks and abuse, terrifying his youngest children in particular.

"Even though my dad stays awake all night, there are five locks on the door. He just sits there waiting for something to happen," explained Khalid. The family of seven has begged the housing association to move them, but to no avail.

"We are seriously scared. We are always telling the police this is really serious but they don't treat it as serious. They treat it as if we are lying," said Khalid, who wants to be a mechanical engineer, but says he now has problems concentrating on school work and maintaining good grades.

"Since all this started, I don't get as much chance to learn. We are all so scared. We just want to move away. Dad pleaded with the housing association. He said we would all live in a one-bedroom flat but they said that would be illegal," he said.

Last night, London and Quadrant Housing Association said: "We confirm that Mr Mohamed has made a number of allegations of racial harassment against residents. We have investigated all these but neither we nor the police have been able to obtain sufficient evidence to support the allegations at present."

Independent