Ethnic and Racial Profiling Widespread in Russia, Sociologist Says

Paul Goble

            Staunton, December 4 – Russian officials across the country often engage in ethnic and racial profiling, according to Kseniya Grigoryeva, a specialist on ethnic discrimination at the Moscow Institute of Sociology. The most frequent victims are people from the North Caucasus and Central Asia as well as Roma and Ukrainians.

            She drew that conclusion on the basis of an examination of “about 500 documents” concerning such discrimination and reported it to a meeting of the Russian Social Chamber on Goals and Mechanisms of the Strategy for Implementing State Nationality Policy (nazaccent.ru/content/31659-ekspert-rasskazala-ob-etnicheskoj-diskriminacii-so.html).

            Grigoryeva said that she had evidence of such profiling from 63 of the more than 80 federal subjects of the Russian Federation, an indication of how widespread such practices are involving the selective collection of information about citizens of different nationalities and about patterns of mistreatment of those officials do not like.

            At the same session, Margareta Lyange, the head of the Guild of Interethnic Journalism, repeated the complaint she made earlier at the Presidential Council on Interethnic Relations that the central media ignore or at least downplay nationality problems. In response, the Social Chamber promised to hold hearings about that next year (nazaccent.ru/content/31656-v-op-rf-predlozhili-provesti-slushanie.html).

             Russian propagandists have often pointed to cases of racial profiling in other countries and especially in the United States.  This is a rare example of an acknowledgement that this noxious practice is to be found in the Russian Federation as well.