The Ministry of the Interior has received an order to strengthen measures against potential racist violence in Moscow and those who perpetrate it. The Moscow News takes stock of the situation.
"The fact is that we witnessed a spate of attacks at the end of January through February, aimed at foreigners. Ministry staff received an order to increase attempts to search for and arrest those likely to attack foreigners," Yevgeny Gildeev, a spokesman for the Interior Ministry, told The Moscow News. The victims are mostly dark-skinned and of Caucasian appearance.
The spokesman refuted claims, made in the Russian press, that innovative new measures are being taken to combat the violence.
"Officers detain and sometimes take fingerprints from those whose appearances fit identikits or descriptions of people on the wanted lists. The fingerprints are needed to compare with prints from the crime scenes," he said. "The announcements of the mass media that the Ministry of the Interior introduced special measures in order to reveal and detain persons who look similar to members of nationalist groups are not at all true."
Increased measures are nevertheless long overdue, says The Center for Interethnic Cooperation's Director, Ashot Airapetian. "The demographic situation is changing and Muscovites are not ready for the changes this brings. That increases xenophobic sentiments," he told The Moscow News. He said that ethnic leaders report a worsening situation, where they are scared for their children in school. "The problem of racist attitudes is no less acute among young people and students."
Gildeev said that most members of fascist groups are between 15 and 18 years old. "The Inspectorate for the Rights of Minors conducts work in schools, holding meetings with pupils to explain what the result of breaking the law in this way can be, with the aim of preventing similar crimes in the future."
He went on to say that about half of the attacks on foreigners this year "were the result of household quarrels or clashes between foreigners... not of nationalistic antagonism."
By Tom Washington
