Ethnic Clashes in Moscow Increasingly Between Russians and Non-Russians, Shustov Says

Paul Goble

            Staunton, Nov. 14 – “Inter-ethnic relations in Russia continue to deteriorate, Aleksandr Shustov says, especially in Moscow and other major cities where immigrant workers are concentrated. And perhaps most disturbingly, clashes between ethnic groups are no longer primarily between non-Russian nations but between them and ethnic Russians.

            Ethnic conflicts have increased in frequency and size in Moscow, the commentator continues; and there they have ever more often involved violence between non-Russians and Russians. Not surprisingly, many of the latter want to reduce the number of immigrants (ritmeurasia.org/news--2021-11-14--moskva-i-emigranty-etnicheskaja-situacija-v-stolichnom-regione-nakaljaetsja-57356).

            Russian politicians and officials now find themselves trapped between an increasingly angry Russian population which views immigrants as a threat not only of violence but drugs and Russian businesses whose leaders say they cannot function without cheap foreign labor. That has meant that proposals of reforms so far have been mild.

            But the situation is deteriorating so rapidly, Shustov concludes, that “it is not excluded” that those in power will be forced to adopt harsher measures even though some of these are likely to harm economic recovery.