30.08.2007 TRANSITIONS ONLINE: Gangs: Vigilante Justice

Russian disdain for non-Slavs is misdirected. They ought to care more about a fair judicial system and good governance.

ST. PETERSBURG, Russia | A man is a murderer when he cuts another manТs throat in a deliberate attack, right? But the question then arises: are the people that hold the victimТs feet, punch him, tie him up and prevent him from escaping also culpable in the crime?

However obvious the answer may seem, regardless of forensic or legal expertise, a Russian court can often rule otherwise.

Timur Kacharava
A notorious trial that ended in St. Petersburg in August concluded that Alexander Shabalin, the person charged with fatally slitting the throat of 20-year-old anti-fascist activist Timur Kacharava in November 2005, was a murderer. He was sentenced to 12 years in prison. But six other people who held Kacharava and prevented him from resisting were not charged as accomplices in the murder, but rather for inciting social hatred. Three received suspended sentences, the others got up to three years in prison.

The lawyer who represented the Kacharava family in the trial suggested a mistake had been made Ц either deliberately or because of incompetence Ц when the case was classified during preliminary investigations.

Despite testimony from KacharavaТs friends that he had been followed, received threats by telephone and been targeted before, the investigators accepted the scenario in which the murderer said he had spontaneously suggested beating up an anti-fascist and taken the initiative in attacking him, with the whole thing getting out of control.

KacharavaТs relatives, friends and colleagues remain convinced he was the victim of an organized and well-armed neo-Nazi group. The fatal stabbing occurred outside a St. Petersburg bookshop on a Sunday evening, as Kacharava and friend Maxim Zgibai were talking. Zgibai survived the attack by the seven young men.

УSt. PetersburgТs fascists arenТt a disorganized gang. They are a full-fledged, militarized group, boasting a diverse structure, complete with scouts, guerrillas and access to classified databases containing personal information on local citizens,Ф one of KacharavaТs friends told me. УTimur had been attacked by fascists before. Just three days prior to his murder, he told his girlfriend he felt threatened and worried for his life.Ф

TROUBLING PATTERN

In the context of other recent trials for hate crimes in Russia, a disturbing pattern is emerging. The victim is typically attacked by a group of assailants but in the end they either escape punishment, get charged for hooliganism, or guilt is piled upon the attacker responsible for the mortal wound, while accomplices enjoy a lucky escape.

In October 2006, the St. Petersburg City Court acquitted a group of young people suspected in the murder of Vietnamese student Vu An Tuan, who was stabbed to death in October 2004 during an attack by a group of drunken youths. Also in 2006, another group Ц suspected in the murder of 9-year-old Tajik girl Khursheda Sultanova Ц was cleared of murder charges and convicted of hooliganism.

The Kacharava case illustrates that for the Russian state, the problem is an individual killer rather than a broader problem with Russian society, where neo-fascist groups are gaining strength.

The verdicts mirror far-reaching xenophobic sentiments in society and the unsympathetic way many people feel toward non-Slavs, as well as those who speak out.

In the middle of August I attended a discussion between a group of Russian journalists and several Western editors in Prague, Czech Republic. One of the issues discussed was the elections to the Russian Duma in December.

УWe will vote for anyone who helps to get rid of the Chinese,Ф said one Novosobirsk journalist, eyes full of rage, to a question about the possible electoral preferences during the campaign. УThis Chinese invasion is by far the biggest problem here,Ф the journalist added to dispel any doubts about his views the audience may have had.

In other Russian cities a Tajik construction worker and an unlicensed Azeri driver have become a faceless stereotype, like the Polish plumber in Western Europe.

IT'S ALL HOOLIGANISM

The Russian authorities have not yet been able to introduce an efficient mechanism against racism and ethnic and religious intolerance. They often turn a blind eye to the scale of the problem by classifying many of the attacks as ordinary murders or УhooliganismФ to create more positive statistics.

When Valentina Uzunova, one of RussiaТs leading experts on ethnically motivated crimes, complained to the police this spring about being followed and receiving threats, and asked for protection, her request was turned down owing to Уlack of evidence.Ф In July, Uzunova survived a violent street attack and was hospitalized with severe head injuries. Files she had on an important legal case Ц involving a nationalist gang Ц were stolen. Was the attack that missing piece of evidence the police required to give the expert the protection she clearly needed?

Several years ago, when human rights advocate Yuly Rybakov was a deputy in the State Duma, he learned that two extremist groups had been planning to assassinate him.

The lawmaker contacted the police and, providing all evidence available to him, asked for protection, or at the very least, for his phone calls to be monitored and recorded. His request was turned down.

УI then went public about the threats, and made a speech at the Duma about it to protect myself,Ф Rybakov said. УIn most cases, prosecutors openly show their contempt to anti-fascists and democrats, sometimes with outright insults, because we challenge and criticize the authorities.Ф

Naturally, if the police really reacted to every signal like that, then the scale of the problem would be impossible to ignore, and they would have develop a counterstrategy.

But the climate of xenophobia benefits the authorities as it provides a convenient channel of routing peopleТs anger. If ordinary Russians blame ethnic minorities for a poor quality of life, corruption, high crime rates and the enormous wealth gap, the major consequence will be a high level of intolerance and ethnic hatred. But if the people turn their anger against the authorities, then the state would face an uncomfortable level of social unrest.

Russians should care more about creating a state to protect to their rights, liberties and interests and be less concerned about a few more Chinese restaurants opening in the neighborhood or a few more Azeri drivers giving them a cheap ride at a quarter of a regular taxi price.

And they should care more about having courts handing out verdicts that illustrate the strength of law, rather than the power of all sorts of biased attitudes.

If they did, they might be less afraid of external enemies Ц real or imagined.

Galina Stolyarova is a writer for The St. Petersburg Times, an English-language newspaper.