Ethnic Russians in Russia Under Attack from Minorities Just as White Americans are in US, Soshenko Says

Paul Goble

            Staunton, Nov. 22 – Increasingly, as a result of mistaken Moscow policies which do not punish members of ethnic minorities who commit crimes as harshly as they do ethnic Russians, the latter find themselves under attack from these minorities in much the same way White Americans do in the US, Andrey Soshenko says.

            The Russian commentator says that the situation will become even worse if the media are prohibited from mentioning the nationality of criminals out of a sense of political correctness because then the minorities will feel even more impowered and the Russians won’t realize they are under attack (ruskline.ru/news_rl/2021/11/23/v_ssha__belye_v_rossii__russkie).

            Such state policies, Soshenko says, are “killing ethnic Russians in Russia,” and the danger is “growing month to month.” And in Russia the problem is especially serious because many of the diaspora communities are connected with extremist and terrorist groups and the drug trade.     

            The Chechen parliament recently called for the Duma to adopt a law that would prohibit the media from mentioning the nationality of anyone charged with a crime, a step the deputies there said was necessary to maintain inter-ethnic and inter-religious peace (iz.ru/1253528/2021-11-22/v-gd-vnesen-zakonoproekt-o-zaprete-upominat-v-smi-natcionalnost-prestupnikov).

            Andrey Klishas, head of the Federation Council Committee on Constitutional Law and someone who usually reflects the opinion of the Kremlin, immediately gave a positive assessment of the measure (iz.ru/1253449/2021-11-22/klishas-vyskazalsia-o-zakonoproekte-na-zapret-upominaniia-natcionalnostei-prestupnikov-v-smi).

            That is perhaps no surprise, Soshenko suggests, given that Presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov has repeatedly said that “crime has no nationality” (iz.ru/1253497/2021-11-22/v-kremle-otcenili-zakonoproekt-ob-ukazanii-natcionalnosti-prestupnikov-v-smi). Even less surprising, Russia’s Muslim leaders back the idea of a ban (ruskline.ru/news_rl/2021/10/09/zaevshaya_plastinka_gosnacpolitiki).

            Fortunately, Soshenko says, there are healthy forces which oppose it. The Presidential Human Rights Council opposes the idea (narodsobor.ru/2021/11/23/komissiya-spch-ne-podderzhala-zapret-ukazaniya-naczionalnosti-prestupnika-v-smi/) as do Duma deputies Konstantin Zatulin, Mikhail Delyagin, Aleksey Zhuravlyov, and Anatoly Vassertman (news.ru/society/v-gosdume-raskritikovali-zapret-upominat-nacionalnost-prestupnikov/ and narodsobor.ru/2021/11/23/podavlenie-voli-russkih-zapretit-li-gosduma-upominanie-naczionalnosti-prestupnikov/).

            What is more striking than this back and forth is the extent to which it mirrors debates in other countries and the fact that a Russian commentator has pointedly drawn the parallel between what some White Americans believe is an attack on them by supporters of Black Lives Matter and what some Russians believe is an attack on themselves by immigrants and minorities.