‘Russia for the Russians’ Sounded after Moscow Soccer Match ‘Outrages Dagestanis and Highlights Broader Problem

Paul Goble

            Staunton, Sept. 5 – After an August 27 soccer match between Moscow’s Spartak and Makhachkala’s Dynamo teams, someone posted the slogan “Russia for the Russians” online. Dagestanis were outraged and have become more so because Moscow officials have done nothing to rein in those responsible even though this phrase was declared extremist in 2010.

            When Moscow wants us to go to war, some Dagestanis are now saying, “we are equal citizens of Russia, but the rest of the time, then we are second-class,” the result of the Kremlin’s  effort to present itself as a multinational state and at the same time to appeal to the feelings of the ethnic majority (kavkazr.com/a/rossiya-dlya-russkih-pochemu-lozung-natsionalistov-vernulsya-v-futbol-na-matche-s-komandoy-iz-dagestana/33105070.html).

            One Dagestani political activism, Madina Ibragimova, deputy head of the LDPR party in that republic said that those manipulating young Muscovites to say such things are “just as much terrorists as those who inspired the terrorist act at Crocus City Hall, the attacks in Makhachkala and Derbent, and the hostage taking in Rostov” (t.me/MadinaIbragimova77/1554).

            The most senior political figures in Dagestan, almost all of whom have been appointed by Moscow, so far have kept silent, a failure to speak out that other Dagestanis have noticed and that likely is having the effect of calling still more attention to the failure of Moscow officials to take any serious action against those who scandalized the Dagestanis with this slogan.

            Indeed, Gleb Trufanov, a specialist in conflict studies, compares what has happened in the wake of the Moscow match with what happened 14 years ago when fans shouted openly “Russia for the Russians.” That couldn’t happen now unless there was official approval. That some have put out this slogan suggests that there are those in power who now favor testing the waters.

            But the reaction in Dagestan to the inaction of the Russian police suggests that someone in Moscow is now playing with fire and that unless the central authorities come down hard on anyone attempting to mobilize people on the basis of “Russia for the Russians” is playing with fire that could trigger a conflagration.