Moscow, Caucasians victims of xenophobia and torture
Tension rises after four people of Azeri origin attacked residents of the capital. Abuses against Caucasian detainees reported in Rostov prison. Discrimination against Caucasians and Muslims could trigger street riots.
Moscow (AsiaNews) - An episode of street violence occurred in the Novovatutinsk district of the "New Moscow", an important slice of the local province recently aggregated to the metropolis, which intends to become the "largest capital in Europe", if not the whole world. Many immigrants live in the peripheral and provincial areas, including many Caucasians from the federal regions and former Soviet republics.
The brawl, which broke out on 4 November, was attributed to 'groups of Caucasians', with no real identification of the participants. The incident sparked widespread discussion on social networks and was even discussed on popular television programmes, including one on the Russia Today channel hosted by Margarita Simonyan, a well-known journalist of Armenian origin.
Four people attacked a local couple. The 31-year-old Aleksandr Žilovnikov was holding a small child in his arms and addressed the attackers, protesting at the terror inflicted on the child. In response, the attackers beat him savagely in front of the child and the other person, threatening him with a knife.
The incident was filmed by passers-by, and the video soon went viral, along with the epithets of 'Caucasian' or 'Cossacks from Orenburg' attributed to the attackers. It was only later that the authorities published the names of the attackers: four young men aged between 18 and 21, all from Azerbaijan, three of them Russian citizens. The police charged them with 'hooliganism', but the judge decided to change the charge to 'attempted murder'.
Simonyan complained that 'people of Caucasian nationality are endangering the security of citizens, with the risk that the control measures of Soviet times will be reintroduced'. Chechnya's President Ramzan Kadyrov spoke out against the presenter, accusing her of trying to 'make a career out of disinformation', spreading discriminatory feelings against Caucasians, and calling for 'intervention from above'.
Torture in Rostov prison
Also making headlines this week is news from the prison hospital no. 19 in Rostov-on-Don, an ancient Russian city close to the Caucasus area, also caused a stir. In the ward for tuberculosis sufferers, almost all of whom are Caucasian, prisoners are tied to beds and dosed with psychotropic drugs, subjected to physical violence and sexual abuse.
At least 60 prisoners have denounced this mistreatment, but the local prosecutor's office has always ignored the complaints. In recent days, however, the replacement of the Rostov regional prosecutor's office has allowed an official investigation to begin. The replacement is due to the initiative of the chairman of the social control commission of the region, Igor Omelčenko.
Interviewed by Kavkaz.Realii, the politician confirmed that the signals from the prison clinic had started to arrive a long time ago; several people had written and addressed the authorities: "It was enough to demand that pictures be taken of the prisoners in the treatment rooms, so that the practice of violence would stop... then I saw with my own eyes people being massacred, I did not want to believe it". A campaign of defamation against Omelčenko then began in the official press, and it was only after a long battle that the complaints were verified.
In Russia, discrimination against Caucasians has a long history. It was also common in the Soviet years, when riots and crime were often blamed on 'Caucasians' and all sorts of abuses were allowed. It is often Caucasian central or regional officials who support these attitudes in order to gain personal advantage.
As Ruslan Mutsolgov, the head of the Yabloko liberals in Ingushetia, puts it, 'discrimination against Caucasians and Muslims, supported by the current regime in Moscow, could lead to unpredictable reactions, even to street riots'.
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16/06/2018 09:00
17/10/2022 12:48
