Xenophobic attacks result in 23 deaths within a year in Russia

[pampango]

Source: Aysor.com

Xenophobic violence and radical nationalism resulted in 23 deaths this year in Russia, Interfax reported citing the SOVA Center for Information and Analysis which monitors xenophobia in Russia.

“23 people were killed and over 242 were injured in xenophobic attacks since beginning of 2010 in Russia,” SOVA reported.

“As before, since beginning of 2010, most xenophobic attacks were recorded in Moscow and Moscow Region (11 people were killed, 94 injured), Petersburg and Leningrad Region (1 killed, 35 injured), and Nizhny Novgorod (2 killed, 14 injured). In the rest of the cities the number of victims does not exceed 10,” report said.

According to the organization, xenophobic attacks were registered in 39 Russian cities in September, leaving one person dead and over 14 others injured.

Read more: http://www.aysor.am/en/news/2010/10/02/russia-xenophobia/

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The SOVA Center for Information and Analysis is a human rights nongovernmental organization and think tank that conducts sociological research on development of nationalism and racism in modern Russia.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SOVA_Center

"SOVA Center produces regular reports and recommendations regarding hate crimes that are widely used and cited by OSCE, Amnesty International, Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting, and other human rights and political organizations."

"State Duma Deputy and Judicial Committee Deputy Chairman Andrey Savelyev filed a criminal libel complaint against a number of liberally oriented NGOs on July 13, 2007, including SOVA Center. Savelyev cited use of the descriptive terms "ultra-right" and "racist" in article on the SOVA Center web site. He pointed out that the ascribing such qualities constitutes a criminal accusation according to the then newly established "anti-extremism laws." The court case remains open at end of 2008."

[COLGATE4]

1. It won't be long before they start on the Jews. They always do.

[Posteritatis]

2. Those numbers seem low. (nt)

[Igel]

4. It probably is.

A lot of deaths/injuries aren't IDed as based on ethnic divisions, even though they are (to be fair, in some areas anti-Russian attacks happen, as well).

Recently read a post on a list I subscribe to that complained about the lack of intersexual (or some such term) sensitivity in Russian classes: Classes didn't teach LGBT... students, at the HS or college level, the necessary terms to interact with their LGBT... peers in Russia, they didn't encourage male/male or female/female "marriage" scenarios or provide proper language pedagagoy for dealing with a male who thinks of him(?)self as female or vice-versa in a language where gender is expressed on past tense verbs and adjectives.

The response was a posting listing numerous articles on gay-bashing, attacks on blacks (esp. foreigners) and other non-Russian nationalities/ethnicities, and pointing out that encouraging gay students to be openly gay in Russia is rather like encouraging them to go and get their heads bashed in with a brick. In the right settings, it's safe; on the other hand, giving training to students on how to identify and go to gay bars to pick up/get picked up is as ethical as teaching straight students how to find their own particular strain of meat market. The straight students get no such teaching; the gay students get no such training. Equality reigns.

[Odin2005]

3. Russia is a horrifically socially backwards country. Very sad.

The Russian Orthodox Church is very powerful in post-Soviet Russia, and it's full of bigoted fundamentalists fanning the flames of hate. Ethnic Russian nationalism is also a very powerful force.