RFE/RL: Russian Political Weekly

26 March 2004, Volume 4, Number 11

SKINHEADS TAKING THEIR CUE FROM OFFICIAL RHETORIC?

Despite official statements condemning ethnic violence and President Vladimir
Putin's occasional warnings to perpetrators, violence by right-wing extremist
groups is on the rise in Russia. The increase in attacks committed by Russian
fascist skinheads is perhaps the most reported and researched indicator of this
disturbing trend. Last month, sociologist Aleksandr Tarasov of the Moscow
Committee for Human Rights released a report that concluded that the number of
Russian skinheads is increasing, as is the number and scale of violent, racially
motivated offences. Tarasov contributed an article on the topic to strana.ru on
27 February.

According to Tarasov, Russian skinhead groups formed during the perestroika
years and became increasingly popular as a result of the structural and economic
dislocation that occurred in the wake of the disintegration of the Soviet Union.
He specifically cites the decline of the educational system and "social
catastrophes" such as drug and alcoholism, prostitution, the rise in sexually
transmitted diseases, and extreme poverty.

Over the past two years, the number of skinheads has increased from 30,000 to
50,000, according to Tarasov and the Moscow Human Rights Bureau. Growth has been
especially rapid in Moscow and St. Petersburg, although the phenomenon can be
observed nationwide. A total of 85 "organized extremist groups" exist across the
country, mostly concentrated in urban areas where evidence of social and
economic disparities is most pronounced. The usual targets of skinhead attacks
are migrants from the former Soviet states of Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia,
Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan, and from the Russian North Caucasus regions.
Violence against African, Asian, and Indian students is also increasing in
several regions.

Acts of ethnic violence have grown more severe over the past two years, with an
alarming increase in the number of murders. Tarasov attributes the increase in
"brazen" attacks, including murder and large-scale vandalism, particularly since
last fall, to a different set of factors than those that gave birth to the
Russian skinhead movement. He draws a parallel between the increasing popularity
of the skinheads and the increasingly nationalistic rhetoric and ideas in the
mainstream of current Russian politics. Radical groups have been emboldened by
"the legalization and legitimating of great-power and imperial ideologies."

Tarasov also notes a change in the composition of skinhead groups over the past
decade, as well as a shift in their ideology. He finds that the skinhead
population has changed from low-income people with little education to become
increasingly middle class, including young men from families that own small to
medium businesses. Ideologically, the skinheads initially espoused a "racist,
xenophobic, militaristic, and anti-intellectual" program. However, they are
presently more "consciously fascist, anticommunist, Russian Orthodox
fundamentalist, and anti-Semitic."

Tarasov concludes that there is growing evidence that "Nazi skinheads are being
encouraged, organized, and used by Russia's ruling circles in their own
interests," "Izvestiya" reported on 20 February. For example, Tarasov's report
states that Moscow Interior Ministry special troops were training skinheads in
2002, although the daily did not say what that training involved.

There have also been reports of connections between the pro-Putin youth group
Walking Together and Moscow skinheads. The two forces have been known to work
together on some protest marches and rallies. In September 2002, "Novaya gazeta"
reported that Aleksei Mitryushin, a leader of a local Moscow Walking Together
branch, formerly headed a skinhead group called Rabid Stallions. The same issue
of "Novaya gazeta" quoted an unidentified alleged member of a skinhead group
called United Brigade-88, who claimed that Moving Together gave them money to
break up a demonstration in defense of NTV at the Ostankino television center
(see "RFE/RL Newsline," 24 September 2002).

Also in 2002, however, about 200 Walking Together activists in Rostov
demonstrated to demand that local police do more to protect foreigners from
attacks by skinheads. That demonstration came in the wake of a spate of local
attacks against foreign students from Latin America and Africa (see "RFE/RL
Newsline," 16 April 2002). (Heather McGee)