Moscow Officials Now Saying What Used to Land Far Right Activists in Prison, Kulayeva Says

Paul Goble

            Staunton, July 27 – Even more disturbing than the rise of extreme right Russian nationalist activism over the last few years has been the fact that Moscow officials are now saying exactly what used to land those who held those views time in Russian jails and prisons, language that is attracting ever more people to act in the same way, Stefaniya Kulayeva says.

            The expert at the Memorial Anti-Discrimination Center says that poll and after poll shows that xenophobia has increased since the start of Putin’s expanded war in Ukraine and that ever more Russians feel free to manifest their hatred for immigrants and minorities (svoboda.org/a/russkiy-marsh-v-korenovske/33050775.html).

            Because senior Russian government officials are now saying what only far right activists said in the past, ever more both of them and in the population at large feel they can act out their views with impunity and even that what they are doing is precisely what the Kremlin itself actually wants.

            If this trend continues, Kulayeva suggests, the authorities may very well lose control of the situation. Some of them are even aware of that danger, but despite that, far right Russian nationalism and extremism is continuing to intensify and spread, trends that at the very least point to more violence and the rise of anti-Russian attitudes among minority groups.