Only Action Will Quell Xenophobia
The Moscow Times,
January 31, 2005
It is reprehensible that 19 State Duma deputies signed a petition accusing Jews of fomenting ethnic hatred and demanding that prosecutors investigate all Jewish organizations in Russia, even if the authors later retracted the letter. It is even more reprehensible that the Communist and Rodina factions, to which the deputies belong, refused to take any disciplinary action. Faction leaders have probably calculated that any punitive action against the signatories of the petition would alienate xenophobic voters who helped them get into the Duma last year. Ivan Melnikov, the deputy head of the Communist Party's central committee, likely had these voters in mind Thursday when he refused to pass any judgment on Vladimir Kashin and Albert Makashov, two of his party comrades who signed the petition. Speaking on the day when the world commemorated the 60th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz, Melnikov asserted that they had "the full right" to express their opinion. Indeed, why would the Communists condemn Makashov, a retired general? After all, he is one of his party's best-known members and has won seats in one Duma election after another, despite his regular anti-Semitic diatribes.
Rodina, the nationalist bloc that rode into the Duma thanks to tacit but strong support from the Kremlin, by most accounts has also refused to condemn its deputies who signed the petition.
The Duma factions are not alone in cynically exploiting xenophobia in Russia, where anti-Semitism is second only to dislike for natives of the Caucasus and Central Asia, and foreigners of color in general. Nikolai Kondratenko, who attacked both Jews and natives of the Caucasus in his speeches when serving as Krasnodar governor, can attest to how being an outspoken xenophobe can help a politician's career in this country. He is now a senator in the Federation Council.
Fortunately, these officials do not decide the country's fate. Russia is a presidential republic, and President Vladimir Putin has regularly condemned anti-Semitism and xenophobia. Addressing a forum Thursday near Krakow, Poland, Putin said he is ashamed of the anti-Semitism, xenophobia and racial intolerance in Russia.
However, mere condemnation of this evil will not make it go away, as frequent hate crimes in Moscow and other Russian cities prove. Both the authorities and the public need to stop talking and start acting to end xenophobia. The country's future depends on whether its hundred plus ethnic groups will be able to live and prosper side by side.