Paul Goble
Staunton, January 21 – Members of
the Cossack police that Krasnodar Governor Aleksandr Tkachev has armed with pneumatic
weapons say that “in the first instance, they always direct their attention to
persons of Caucasus nationality,” setting the stage for new conflicts and
prompting some non-Russians to ask why they are allowed to form similar units.
The Russian news agency reported the
comments of the Cossack police in Krasnodar, noting that Tkachev last fall
asked “the Cossack police” to involve themselves with “migration control,” a
clear reference to non-Russians from the neighboring North Caucasus and to “harshly
establish order” in the kray (www.yuga.ru/news/284753/).
One Cossack involved in these
patrols told the local press, Yuga.ru reported that members of these units
check the documents of people on the street to ensure that everything is in
order. Obviously, he continued, “we always turn our attention to persons of
Caucasus nationality” because they are the ones most likely to have
shortcomings in that regard.
When they began their patrols, the
Cossacks say, the regular militia were “skeptical” about their utility. “But there are now conflicts, at least with
us. And even when they find themselves on patrol with an Armenian or an Adyg, [members
of the Cossack units] never say: I’m a Cossack and that means I won’t help you.”
The Cossacks add that they believe
they should be given greater authority in law enforcement than they have
received so far. “In fact,” one of them
said, “we cannot check documents or independently detail anyone.” Because they know the law from the Internet,
he continued, people are not prepared to see their rights violated.
The Cossacks at least in Krasnodar
may get more powers soon. On Friday, Governor Tkachev announced that he was
arming the Cossack units with pneumatic weapons so that, in his words, “they
will be able to defend the residents of the kray to the full extent possible” (www.newsru.com/russia/19jan2013/tkachev.html).
Human rights activists have
criticized both the use of the Cossacks as a law enforcement agency and this
latest step to provide them with non-lethal arms. But according to Newsru.com, the idea has the
support of local government officials and many ethnic Russians in the
population there.
But this latest step may soon
provoke more problems elsewhere as non-Russians ask why the Cossacks should
have the right to form such armed patrols when other nationalities do not. On the Kuk-Bure.ru site, one Bashkir activist
asks” “why should the Baskirs not have their own Cossacks?” (kyk-byre.ru/918-gubernator-tkachev-poobeschal-razdat-kazakam-travmaticheskoe-oruzhie.html).
“Why
can the Russians but not the Bashkirs?” he continues, pointing out that “for a
long time in the Russian Empire Bashkirs were Cossacks and guarded the southern
frontiers.” Why should that tradition not be established rather than allowing “the
southern Urals to be filled up only with ethnic Russian Cossacks.”
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