Yesterday the Jury of Moscow City Court handed down its verdict in the most sensational case in recent times - the murder of fan Egor Sviridov, which caused mass disturbances on Manezhnaya Square. The jury found the main defendant, Aslan Cherkesov, guilty of murder, but the word Manezhnaya still remains a symbol of a problem clearly named at a recent meeting in Public chamber: «Conflicts in the youth environment - are there any underlying ethnic reasons?». The participants in the sessions tried to understand the reasons for interethnic conflicts, who their initiators are and who benefits from kindling opposition between the inhabitants of one country and discussions of whether the cultures of different ethnicites are compatible and how to make their coexistence peaceful and harmonious.
The leader of "Russian Image," Alexei Mikhailov:
Almost a year has passed since the events on Manezhnaya Square. This subject has of course been well discussed. But I must say that it has set the agenda for almost this entire period, for nine months. If someone was conceived on that day he could have been already born. What are the results? What has changed during that time?
I remember how I came at the invitation of the Public Chamber, was one of the first to make a presention. I have seen the absolute expulsion caused by justification of this event and proves that it was not a pogrom, and that it was motivated, and that the rest of the people totally did not understand me. Let's see how it will be today.
I see the changes even in official policy. Indeed, the notion that ethnic conflicts occur because of some provocateurs, the Nazis or anyone else fomenting ethnic strife, is disappearing. There are indeed provocateurs and instigators, but there are problems. It's like pain. Pain can be controlled with medicines, but the wound can be picked open, and both, in principle, should not last long. One needs to feel his own body and treat the problem.
What is this problem in the opinion of the Russian majority? The most irritating factor today is the aggressive behavior of Caucasian youth, primarily from Dagestan, which is distinctive. Then there are crimes and corruption, which are also not unreasonably often aligned with the Caucasus in the public mind. Corrupt ties of ethnic communities and criminal activity that does not find a proper response from the state.
Another annoying factor which one sees with the help of media are some North Caucasian republics and their ostentatious luxury and exorbitant spending. People start wondering: where does it all come from? Out of whose pocket does the money come from? Finally, the position of the authorities, which was such that all the fault was on the provocateurs - all is well, sleep well. Those who tried to raise this issue have not been adequately punished.
Seeing this situation, a simple man, a Russian man, ceases to feel at home in his own country. He alienates and understands that the country, the state apparatus, is for someone else. This is a dangerous factor, which is beyond the scope of national relations. International relations caused the collapse of the Soviet Union. And a very similar scenario can be staged nowadays. Therefore, I urge not to conceal the problem, not to blame extremist organizations, not to bargain and take some action.
The issue of measures is huge, but I would highlight a few areas. Firstly - the Russian question. It slowly begins to come out in the agenda too, but the authorities are still a little afraid of it in my opinion. At the moment they are considering whether it is necessary to raise it at all. Russia, as has been said here, is a multinational state. This cannot be disputed. But it is also a Russian state, which was created as a Russian country, primarily Russian, through their union. Such is the structure of representation of our country, if we say that it exists not only for 20 years, but a little more. The state founding role of the Russian people and national equality of these ethnic groups should be somehow reflected, perhaps, in the constitution.
Assessment and recognition of the problems of the ethnic communities must also be stated at governmental level. Until now it has not been. There is something latent that there are some people who are behaving badly. But there should be some speeches of condemnation spoken in the public sphere and the calling for communities to behave correctly.
I will allow myself to digress and give you an example. In Rostov a stabbing occurred about a month ago. Indeed, it was also organized on ethnic grounds. Local activists of the organization and, as far as I remember, representatives of the Armenian community signed a joint declaration, which had two major points. First - let's not make an ethnic conflict from it. The second most important, was an appeal to the friends and relatives of the main suspect not to hide him and give him up to the investigation, so that investigative actions could be implemented. As far as I know, it had its effect. Thus the conflict was resolved, and the criminal case had the right development.
Finally, there should be a direct negotiation process. Very often unnecessary middlemen interrupt dialogues between ethnic communities, organizations, communities and social networks. Very often, these mediators are inadequate and pursue their own goals. Let us start to get rid of them somehow.
The Chief of the Union of Student Affinity groups, member of the Club "Multinational Russia," Kantemir Hurtaev:
To the surprise of many people I would like to say that I actually agree with much of what Alexei has said. However, there are things that are very difficult to accept. Indeed, it has been almost a year since the events held on Manezhskaya Square, but we do not observe any fundamental changes. This problem gets more attention, there are some institutions, money allocated to new programs, but I cannot see anything fundamental, nothing that would let us be confident that the problem will be solved. There is definitely inappropriate behavior on the part of Caucasian youth, defiant behavior of people coming to study in big cities, but we must look at the situation from another angle. What does the youth see when it comes to this city? It sees the local youth, which is also far from ideal. Often we see young girls with bottles of beer, smoking, barely dressed. We see guys cursing near metro stations and so on. Secondly, young people coming from Caucasus to the big cities are definitely in need of some adaptation and integration. It is necessary to carry out systematic work with them. Even not only with Caucasian youth, with all coming youth. There also exists a certain gap. Faced with single act of discrimination, the Caucasian youth begins to center on their narrow national, ethnic communities, they start promoting radical extremist sentiments, and these sentiments provoke defiant behavior. As far as I know it annoys the locals. In my opinion, the reason is objective. If you come here with a mind, it is possible to organize effective adaption of newcomers to large cities, the problem is solvable, everything is in our power and in the power of the authorities.
On the other hand, I want to speak about the forum we held this summer in Dombay and invited representatives from various sectors, including representatives of the Russian nationalists, and Alexei was there. We realized that we have no fundamental differences or contradictions. We all want to live in a big country and we want to live well. We all believe that we in fact need to respect human rights, that any infringement of the rights and interests of other individuals, peoples and nations is unacceptable. A respectful attitude is a must. However, there are always conflicts.
There is one conclusion: someone is constantly makingg us quarrel on purpose. Systematic work is being carried out. A significant role in this belongs to the media, who often inadequately covers the events with the participation of representatives of different nationalities. Such events are immediately given the national character, once they are displayed in a nationalist light. Myths and stereotypes are created, both of Caucasians, and Russians. These myths and stereotypes do not allow us to live peacefully and co-exist in a single environment. Our history, our experience shows that peoples have been living together peacefully for centuries, and nowadays this problem started to occur.
Today we are more than ever in need of a constructive platform which will unite all the forces of our society, including Russian nationalists, Caucasians, and representatives of other national sectors and societies. I think that it is not the first time we are meeting on the platform of "Multinational Russia", in principle this platform exists. And you can see that it involves representatives of Russian nationalists as well as other sectors of our society.
Only by uniting together can we solve this problem. As soon as we realize the happening and understand it correctly, we can decide. We have already made more than one step in this direction and will continue our work. The problems are all solvable in principle.
Sultan Togonidze, the head of the youth section of the Russian Congress for Caucasian People:
All problems we are facing have already been mentioned. I would like to say some words about the way we can solve these very problems. What are we doing? The Caucasian Forum of Russian Youth was held in order to give Russian nationalists and Caucasian youngsters a chance to start a dialogue. The forum was held in Karachay-Cherkessia. As Alexey could also say, the project was a successful one. Alexey Mikhaylov, Alexander Bosykh, Dmitry Dyomushkin attended this forum. The forum was attended by clerics. The Russian Orthodox Church was represented by Maxim Markov, there were also representatives of Mufti’s office.
The dialogue is possible and the Caucasian forum has shown it. We have found common solution to several problems. We have common view on some things. Representatives of nationalistic groups agreed, for instance, that such slogans as “Stop feeding the Caucasus!” are unacceptable.
At the same time, the official position of the Russian Congress for Caucasian People is that all financial aid to the Caucasus should be transparent. We agree here with nationalists. That’s our official line. We are ready to sign a joint letter to the authorities demanding such transparency. We believe that all the information should be published on the government’s website so that each citizen could find on the net. Still all funds invested in other regions should also be invested transparently.
We don’t think there are any interfaith conflicts in Russia. There is a problem of Islamic radicalism in the Caucasus, but there is still no interfaith conflict. One should better speak about ethnic conflicts. They exist, but there is no clash between Christianity and Islam in the Russian Federation.
We trying to explain to young Caucasians that they should respect Russian traditions and behave properly on the streets of Moscow. We are working on it. We work with higher educational institutions and other organizations. The Russian Congress for Caucasian People is working on this problem. We are now preparing for representatives of Caucasian youth meeting with the Russian President. This will allow Caucasian youngsters to ask their questions, to communicate with the country’s officials.
Speaking about the ‘Russian question’ I should say that such problem really exists. The Russian population is often unprotected. However, the Caucasians are not responsible for it. The Caucasians are ready to support Russians, to help them. What we need is a dialogue. I call for a dialogue of cultures.
VK
