Human rights activists against the “Russian March”

 

By Vestnik Kavkaza

 

Each year on November 4, the Day of National Unity, the representatives of nationalist organizations and movements perform in different cities of Russia and the CIS the so-called "Russian Marches". The authorities sometimes flirting with the nationalists make such statements openly contradicting the holiday, which, in theory, should unite people of different nationalities living in Russia. And, according to "Levada Center," 40% of the population in varying degrees support the "Russian Marches".

 

Ahead of this event, Sergei Mitrokhin, representative of the leadership of Yabloko, said: “Every year we see a revelry of nationalism in Moscow in a variety of forms. In different parts of Moscow various nationalist groups gather. They gather crowds of people of varying degrees of adequacy around them. And all this together, from my point of view, is the annual systematic warming-up (which is extremely dangerous for Russia) of emotions, feelings, phobias, literally dangerous because Russia is a multicultural country, and, therefore, the specificity of Russian statehood is associated with it. Inciting such sentiments is a direct undermining of our state”.

 

Galina Mikhaleva, representative of the leadership of Yabloko, told that on November 4 human rights activists plan to hold a major conference, a forum: “Our main idea is not just to talk and leave, because a lot has already been said, but to create by the end of this conference some kind of action committee which will coordinate the activities related to education, to meetings, events dedicated to this theme, as well as practical activities associated with help to those labor migrants that we have, representatives of ethnic and national minorities”.


According to Ludmila Alexeeva, chairwoman of the Moscow Helsinki Group, "many people are engaged in an utterly hopeless in the present world and very dangerous business - trying to stop migration. One of the features of the modern world is the great migration of peoples. Having easier means of transportation, with the invention of television which broadcasts to the whole world how people live in each country, people can compare - all this encourages people to migrate. Migration in the modern world, the mixing of the population is a normal process and no one can escape it. It will continue, whether we want it or not. Therefore a modern man, if he does not like it, must somehow accustom himself to living in the modern world, because we were born into this world".

 

Alexeeva recalled the United States: “This is one of the richest and most powerful, one of the most successful countries in the modern world. Why? Because for centuries America has been a melting pot which has not opposed this normal process of the mixing of races, nationalities and cultures. Our government, unfortunately, in my opinion, in this regard is one of the most backward groups of the population because instead of explaining to people, convincing them of the need for a peaceful and friendly coexistence and benefiting from the mixing of cultures, knowledge and habits, they have launched this shameful, perhaps, anti-immigrant campaign".

 

The chairwoman of the Moscow Helsinki Group is very proud that "the human rights community has always adhered to the famous Christian truth that there is neither a Hellen, nor a Jew - all the people, regardless of their nationality, race or culture, all the people have equal rights and have human dignity. Their rights, their dignity must be respected, regardless of whether it we are talking about whether they have been born in Moscow, in the country or have moved here. And we will be ashamed when we think about such periods in our history, as we have now when this terrible, shameful, medieval anti-migrant campaign is going on".