Paul Goble
Staunton, July 16 – The nationalist Russian Community has been increasing its attacks on non-Russians from the North Caucasus who live in Russian cities, but the police have done little or nothing in response, a pattern that expert observers say reflects the influence of the FSB and is “legitimizing xenophobia,” whatever Kremlin commentators say.
The Russian Community is the largest Russian nationalist group in the Russian Federation and is growing more violent with time. (For background on it, see jamestown.org/program/russian-community-extremists-becoming-the-black-hundreds-of-today/, windowoneurasia2.blogspot.com/2025/06/russian-community-now-country-wide.html, windowoneurasia2.blogspot.com/2025/05/kremlin-using-russian-community-to.html and windowoneurasia2.blogspot.com/2025/04/russian-community-is-becoming-orthodox.html.)
Kremlin media outlets have denounced the most extreme of these attacks, but the Russian police have usually ignored what the Community is doing, leading ever more experts to conclude that the Kremlin is using it to “legitimize xenophobia” (kavkazr.com/a/patruli-straha-protivostoyanie-russkoy-obschiny-s-urozhentsami-kavkaza/33473499.html).
According to a survey of expert opinion conducted by the Kavkazr portal, “the lack of desire of the police to interfere in the actions of the Russian Community is explained precisely by the protection the group enjoys from the powers” and the fears of the police that if they did interfere, they would suffer as a result.
To the extent that is so, these experts say, the Kremlin is using the Russian Community to legitimize xenophobia and attacks on minorities and making the situation for such groups ever worse regardless of what the Kremlin and its media outlets routinely claim. And that raises the question: will the Kremlin eventually lose control over the monster it has given birth to?
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