Recent nationalistic riots in Moscow became the most discussed topic in North Caucasian media and social nets. Many experts and internet-users from the Caucasus touch on the fact that modern ‘fascists’ are marching through Moscow beating up ‘non-Slavic’ people, while in 1941 their ancestors stood side by side defending Moscow from real fascists. According to experts, any attempts to recreate the events that led to Nazi hegemony in Germany in the 1930s here, in Russia, will inevitably lead to a collapse of the country along the Yugoslav model.
The police were strangely inert during the riots: the crowd was beating up innocent people right in front of policemen who did nothing to stop it. According to the authorities, the demonstrations were started by football fans who were outraged by the unpunished murder of a fellow-fan. However, the official representatives of football fan clubs blame the riots on nationalistic organizations. Therefore, the death of a football fan was not the reason for the outburst, but just the oil that fed the flame. And if modern fascists armed with cold weapons won’t be stopped in their successful marches near the Kremlin walls soon, the riots could become more and more bloody.
The bloggers from the North Caucasus tend to explain the ‘defensive tactics’ of the police by suggesting an order coming from higher authorities. As a result, some police officers also received injuries. Meanwhile, the police are known to implement force against unaggressive demonstrations of the opposition. The extremists who demonstrated a taped execution of a Dagestani and Tadjik on the Internet have not been found yet. Of course, the residents of the Caucasus are inclined to blame the authorities, who are quite indulgent towards nationalists and intolerant of people from the Caucasus.
Russian residents of the North Caucasus express different points of view on the events: some of them greet the riots as acts of just retribution, while others talk about the threat that ethnic conflicts pose to the very existence of the Federation. Some think that the ‘fascist marches’ were sponsored and organized by some hostile forces.
As for the versions of who actually bene fits from the riots, there are several. Some say that an image of an ‘inner enemy’ is being created to distract people from real problems. Others blame foreign intelligence services, trying to cause the state’s collapse. There is also a version that all these atrocities are a sort of dirty PR for future elections.
One of football's official figures addressed a TV audience before the events on Manezhnaya square, but his utterances about ‘Russian self-organization’ anticipated them, and even almost justified the nationalist’s position. However, there could be no possible reasons for citizens of one country to turn on one another on ethnic grounds. There are no real reasons for hatred, only provocations.
Musa Musaev, Makhachkala, exclusively to VK.
