KZBlog

Patrick Frost at Central Asia Foreign Policy Blog recently posted a disturbing article about violence against minorities in Russia. Of course, most of the non-Slavic residents are from Central Asia and the Caucacus. Around 50 people were killed in clear hate crimes in the first three months of 2008, according to human rights groups. That’s four times more such attacks than last year in the same period. It’s also around one attack every other day!

It’s also been noted that the attacks are becoming much more violent, frenzied and organized:

These types of attacks have occurred in recent years in Russia, but they are becoming more organized and severe. Many of the victims have been stabbed 20-30 times during an attack and far-right websites warn that future attacks may include the use of bombs and guns. Semyon Charny, an expert at the Moscow Bureau for Human Rights, said the situation in Moscow was ‘like a safari.’

While Kyrgyzstan has made official complaints to the Russian government, Kazakhstan as far as I know has been silent. Any number of Kazakh friends of mine have been victims of blatantly racist remarks such as being told to go back home, or referred to as “darkies” in Moscow. One hopes that the Central Asian governments will put some pressure on Russia, or lend resources to put an end to the larger and more organized right-wing nationalist groups.

Central Asians make up around 850,000 of Moscow’s 10 million inhabitants.