Protest Against Construction of New Mosque in Perm Oblast Expands from Typical NIMBY Action to Radical Russian Nationalist Move

Paul Goble

            Staunton, Oct. 11 – Most protests about the possible construction of new churches or mosques in Russian cities are best understood as NIMBY actions in which local populations say that such buildings must not go up in their “backyards” rather than as something more  (windowoneurasia2.blogspot.com/2018/12/moscow-patriarchates-building-boom-has.html).

            But in the case of plans for Muslim mosques in areas with ethnic Russian majorities, NIMBY protests can evolve into something more serious. The latest example is in Verkhnyaya Kurya in Perm Oblast where Russians, egged on by activists, have transformed such a protest into an anti-immigrant and even anti-Semitic one (doxa.team/articles/nationalists-in-perm).

            In a detailed article, Dokha journalists report how this evolution took place over only a short period, highlighting the extent to which protests usually dismissed as non-political can rapidly become political and even dangerously extremist if NIMBY protests are unable to achieve their goals.  

            The specifics of the Verkhnyaya Kurya protests are less interesting than the pattern they suggest may be true across Russia, where NIMBY protests are increasingly frequent but generally ignored as non-political. That is a mistake as such protests can with remarkable speed become political and dangerous in the extreme.