ETHNIC TENSIONS IN MOSCOW SPOOK THE CITY’S MIGRANTS
MOSCOW, October 16 (Howard Amos, RIA Novosti) – Public prayers to
mark the beginning of the Islamic feast of Eid al-Adha were not as
crowded as usual this year in Moscow.
A violent nationalist rampage over the weekend has left the city’s
migrant laborers, many of them from mainly Muslim former Soviet
nations, feeling uneasy.
Speaking outside the Cathedral Mosque in downtown Moscow, Maksu
Magdisyan, a crane operator from Armenia, said he knew of several
fellow Muslims who had decided against attending prayers because they
were scared.
“The imam warned us that there could be provocations,” Magdisyan said.
Moscow police estimated Tuesday that about 103,000 people had
gathered in the morning sunshine for ritual prayers on the first day
of festivities for Eid al-Adha, known in Russia by its Turkic name
of Kurban Bairam. That’s nearly one-third less than braved the rain
last year.
Ethnic Violence in Moscow
Nerves have been frayed among the city’s migrant population since an
unsanctioned protest over the killing of 25-year old Yegor Shcherbakov
last week in the southern Moscow neighborhood of Biryulyovo spiraled
out of control. The suspected killer, identified as Orkhan Zeinalov,
from Azerbaijan, was apprehended Tuesday by police special forces in
a town 120 kilometers outside Moscow.
On Sunday evening, nationalist protesters clashed with riot police
and attacked Biryulyovo’s Pokrovsky vegetable warehouse, where many
migrant laborers work.
Video footage shows mobs of young men shouting “Go Russia” as they
smash windows.
Researchers writing for Russian news website Slon.ru said in an article
this week that the number of Azerbaijanis living in Biryulyovo has
earned the district the nickname “little Baku” – a reference to the
former Soviet nation’s capital.
Long-standing Tension
According to federal migration officials, 11.3 million foreigners
entered Russia in the first six months of this year, including 3
million who work illegally. But the term “migrant” is often used to
refer to Russian citizens from the North Caucasus region who have
non-Slavic ethnic roots and cultural backgrounds.
Frustration at demographic trends seen as threatening the native
Russian population has sparked high-profile episodes of violence in
recent years. A major undercurrent of the interethnic tensions lies
in the widespread perception that the police and justice system are
unable, or unwilling, to ensure law and order.
The most significant recent wave of xenophobic unrest was in 2010,
when thousands of football fans demonstrated outside the walls of the
Kremlin and attacked people of non-Slavic appearance in the street
after the murder of a Muscovite football fan. The ostensible trigger
for the unrest was the detention and surprisingly quick release of
a suspect in the killing, who hailed from the North Caucasus.
Biryulyovo Fallout
The authorities have focused much of their attention in Biryulyovo
since Sunday’s violence by targeting workers at the Biryulyovo
vegetable warehouse, an apparent attempt to soothe local tensions.
About 1,200 people were rounded up in a police raid Monday at the
site in what was described as a preventative check for “involvement
in criminal activity.” Senior health officials and investigators say
it is likely the warehouse will be shut down permanently.
Migrants across Moscow fear that the rigorous police checks could be
stepped up after Biryulyovo. Anecdotal accounts of police extorting
bribes, even from those carrying correct papers, are already
commonplace.
One group of Tajiks and Uzbeks who live and work on the eastern
outskirts of Moscow have taken extra precautions during this year’s
Eid al-Adha holiday.
While their employer had originally given the green light for about
100 people to gather in a basement and hold an informal prayer meeting,
permission was suddenly revoked Monday afternoon, the group’s foreman
told RIA Novosti, in light of heightened scrutiny from the authorities
post-Biryulyovo.
“So we broke up into groups and … read prayers in four or five rooms”
in the dormitories and apartments where they live, said the foreman,
who asked that his name not be printed out of fear for himself and
the workers he oversees.
“One wrong word and I’ll get deported that very day, that very minute,
even though all my papers are in order,” he said.
Mobs: Unaware of Nuance
If the past few days show anything, it is that crowds propelled by
nationalist rage make no particular distinctions among the targets
of their violence.
An Uzbek migrant who makes his living trading scrap metal and asked
that his name not be printed out of concern for job security, said
Central Asian migrants were suffering despite having no apparent link
to the Biryulyovo events.
“An Azeri kills a Russian, and for some reason we’re the ones who
get blamed,” he said.