Being a capital, Moscow is a clot of contradictions in the sphere of international relations, as well as is being at the center of activity of various political forces playing the nationalistic card. Therefore, a round table discussion on the topic "Day of National Unity. The interethnic situation in Moscow" was organized in Moscow. During the discussion, experts attempted to answer the following questions: What is national unity now? What should the concept of international relations be? What does nationality mean today? Is it a factor for integration or, on the contrary, for disintegration? What can be done in this area in order to prevent a further escalation of the conflict?
Dmitry Zhuravlev, director general of the Institute of Regional Problems:
As a scientist and former public employee I am mostly interested in the following aspect today. The Day of National Unity is perceived together as part of the Russian national movement, all sorts of "Russian Marches" and various other means of expression… I am curious and I want to ask this question to all the participants of our discussion: "In your opinion, is this tendency beneficial in the first place to the Russian people?" On the one hand, it is clear that the interests of any nation must be protected, including with the help of civil society. Consequently, it must be some kind of civil representation. On the other hand, would not such a rigid separation of the Russian people lead to the opposition of the Russian people to all other peoples of multinational Russia? That is, the question is not whether to protect the interests of Russians. The question is whether we protect them by trying to draw attention to the special situation of the Russian people, which is in fact natural?
Yuri Gorsky, responsible secretary of the public association "Russovet":
This issue is very serious. "Do the Russians need the Russian movement?" Yes, as I have been doing it for a long time already. After the collapse of the Soviet Union the identity of peoples who used to be in one big family, where friendship between peoples was propagated, started to be formed on a national basis. In Russia, this has not happened. But something else has not happened: the Russian Federation has not offered the Russian people any identity. Thus, a generation which is now already in their twenties has been born, while those people who, before the collapse of the Soviet Union, somehow thought of the fate of the Russian nation and had an identity of the Russian people, have fallen into a state of crisis in these twenty years. Plus, a "liberal maximum" of civil society has been superimposed on this issue. By and large, this has led to a situation in which Russian youth begins to search for self-identity, that is, wants to understand what it is, what "Russian" means and what "Russian civilization" is, whether it is a kind of ethnic component related to blood or what? All these questions at the moment excite young people, and this issue needs to be addressed. One of the ways to understand this situation is "street politics".
"Street politics" is something that the young people participate in with great pleasure. Since 2005, the Russian March has been held. There are different manifestations of nationalism at the Russian Marches. There are those who are inspired by negative ideas unacceptable to the Russian people, such as Nazism, as in 1945 we ourselves defeated it. The youth, which is poorly versed in history, tries to look at it aesthetically and take some examples from it. But they are not exactly being provocative, they are just not aware of what they are doing.
There is yet another direction – a pro-Imperial part, which stands for the return of the empire. Russia, unfortunately, is not an empire anymore. It has some historical continuity, but that does not make it an empire. Young people during this time have not been offered a large project, in which they could be fully involved. This is not only the problem of the authorities, but also of us as the civil society, because unfortunately we do not offer young people anything regarding their self-identity.
Yury Moskovsky, Secretary of the Public Council under the Office of the Federal Migration Service in Moscow:
Indeed it is unclear who has started to pull out the shadows of the past in the Russian Federation, Ukraine and Baltic States. Money and funds are directed to it. All this work costs money. I can eagerly believe that those young people "throwing ridge" are working for the so-called "black international". Experts know what this actually is. Many things were written about it in 1970-1980. These are the Nazi underground organizations, which survived after the collapse. I'm sure they are working on the territory of our country, as well as others. And they are working pretty successfully, because all the artifacts which are being introduced among the youth are of a protest character and thus are effective and fascinating to a number of young people.
At the same time, the inter-ethnic situation in our city in general is normal.
We exaggerate certain things, because they seem to us extraordinary and to fall out of the total picture. We have a huge number of mixed marriages. Attention is paid to fights with an element of the ethnic principle because they have an extraordinary appearance. If this were a normal everyday issue, nobody would have noticed it. In recent years crime began to decline in our country, as the whole society is becoming more peaceful as compared to even 20 or 30 years ago. I remember back in my youth in small towns and in various parts of Moscow in the evenings it was dangerous to walk around. The youth had fun pestering passers-by. Now it is a rare phenomenon. And the fights that occur at times do not occur on an ethnic principle or between peoples, but on the "local vs. non-local" level as it often does. If you look at the overall statistics, even for those organizations that call themselves Russian nationalists, the national basis of their composition is very different. Look at the names of the organizers, at their origins.
Haji Makhachev, the authorized representative of Dagestan in Moscow:
What can I say about the Russian March? Frankly, many of the issues here, I sincerely endorse. Their main slogan: "Russia is a Russian land." Who is against it? No Caucasian is against this. It really is a Russian land.
They write: "Russian government for Russia." I agree 200% with this. I want to see a Russian government, to see Russian men coming to power and protecting the interests of the simple Russian people. No Caucasian today occupies a high position. Only, perhaps, the vice-chairman of the Federation Council, Ilyas Umakhanov.
Another slogan is "For a free and Russian Russia." It has always been free. When was Russia not free? This is a great power, historically, nobody has ever managed to defeat it. It has always been Russian, and has always been free. I do not remember it being someone else's colony.
"Russian March against dictatorship" - we are also against dictatorship.
It turns out that this is all created to exploit the fear of non-Russians in Russia.
"Stop robbing Russia". Who is robbing it? Name these people! But you are not naming them, because they sponsor your nationalist movements, marches, Manezhnaya Square and so on.
"No ethnic crime in Russia!" There are thieves, criminals without tribe or homeland. Do Russians not commit crimes? One needs to go to a football match and see how the fans of the Zenit or Dynamo teams sit on one side of the stadium and fans of Caucasian teams – on the other. Where are we guiding our people? The Russian people cannot live without Tatarstan, Dagestan, Chechnya or Kalmykia... We cannot live without you, just as you cannot live without other nationalities.
