They are sincere, but naive to believe that they are struggling for Russia
By the end of May an investigation will hand over to a court a criminal case concerning the unrest on Manezhnaya Square, which took place on December 11, 2010. However, the head of the Criminal Investigation Department of Internal Affairs of Moscow, Viktor Golovanov, made assurances that the police do not intend to stop working on further establishment of active participants in the riots: "Some will be caught soon."
More than four months after the events on Manezhnaya Square, last Saturday a new nationalist rally took place in the Chistye Prudi area of Moscow. And if the first time the nationalists were covered with sporting slogans, this time they are turning to economics. Three hundred "fighters for justice" under the slogan "Enough to feed the Caucasus!" have demanded that the federal government adjusts its fiscal policy and excludes the Caucasus from the budget. According to their calculations, at present each inhabitant of the North Caucasus receives 50 thousand rubles on average every year, while citizens of other regions receive only 5 thousand rubles.
The protesters demanded the subsidizing of the North Caucasus to stop, to investigate numerous cases of corruption and stop allocating investments for deliberately unsuccessful local projects, in particular for the construction of mountain resorts, and a reduction in the amount of financial assistance for Caucasian football teams.
The event was scheduled with the Moscow authorities. The Public Chamber has expressed its bewilderment with the logic of the mayor's office, which had given approval to a rally with obvious nationalistic overtones.
According to the polls conducted by the Public Chamber, young Russian people demonstrate a high level of xenophobia in regard to the Caucasus - only 4% of the respondents expressed a positive attitude towards people from the North Caucasus. However, 76% of the respondents condemned the activities of skinheads.
According to a member of the Public Chamber Alla Gerber, the resentment of young people towards the Caucasian peoples should be carefuly studied and the nationalistic and xenophobic sentiments should be clearly distinguished from the nationalistic and xenophobic sentiments of “othering”.
Katherina Tessemnikova. Exclusively for VK
