Hate crimes in Russia: protests or defense?
Politicians and organizations closely associated with the Kremlin are becoming more active too. The Public Chamber is planning to discuss the issue of growing extremism during its first session. On April 7, the Public Chamber condemned the killing of a Senegalese student in St. Petersburg. The State Duma also intends to deal with fascism following the request by the deputy Alexander Khinstein. Russia’s Prosecutor General Vladimir Ustinov and Chairman of the Supreme Court Vyacheslav Lebedev were invited to take part in the Duma discussions.
Various steps are being taken at the sociopolitical level. Lyudmila Narusova, Chairwoman of the Commission on Information Policy under the upper chamber of the Russian parliament, recently co-founded the Association of Civil Resistance to Fascism. According to her, “the public should sound the alarm and create an atmosphere of intolerance to any manifestations of xenophobia in our society.” Las week the leader of the Social Democratic Party Vladimir Kishenin presented International, an antifascist political union. By and large, the above initiatives look like a bid to put up competition against the Communists, who are to promote the spirit of internationalism by definition.
The subject of the struggle against fascism in Russia is becoming a politically fashionable trend. Nearly all political forces including the Kremlin are trying to make the most of it. However, all the activity is normally politically motivated. Meanwhile, a steady flow of reports on attacks against representatives of this and that nation inspires respective organizations to some extent. And the number of attacks is getting bigger like a snowball. All the above may be used as a pretext for passing a more severe law on extremism.
Translated by Guerman Grachev
