{"id":36307,"date":"2025-07-07T21:31:24","date_gmt":"2025-07-07T18:31:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/adcmemorial.org\/?p=36307"},"modified":"2025-08-18T15:13:19","modified_gmt":"2025-08-18T12:13:19","slug":"bad-for-minorities-bad-for-everyone-the-consequences-of-xenophobia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/adcmemorial.org\/en\/articles\/columns\/bad-for-minorities-bad-for-everyone-the-consequences-of-xenophobia\/","title":{"rendered":"Bad for minorities \u2013 bad for everyone: the consequences of xenophobia"},"content":{"rendered":"

A Russian\u2013Azerbaijani scandal is in full scale, sparked by the brutal detention and torture of ethnic Azerbaijanis in Yekaterinburg, which resulted in the deaths of two of them and severe beatings of others. Random Russian citizens, harshly detained in Azerbaijan, were also beaten; the Azerbaijani authorities responded \u201csymmetrically\u201d to Russian lawlessness and violence by deliberately engaging in public lawlessness and violence of their own.<\/span><\/p>\n

Experts and journalists have already published several reviews of how Russian\u2013Azerbaijani relations have developed over the past decades: recalling the tragedy of the downed plane, the fact that such cases of police abuse against Azerbaijanis \u2013 both migrants and Russian citizens \u2013 have been frequent in Russia, and the Azerbaijani element of Russian organized crime. One of the main questions now being discussed is why Russia chose to insult Azerbaijan in such public way at this particular moment \u2013 and why Azerbaijan responded so sharply and in such an equally appalling way. Experts point to global geopolitical reasons for the current escalation (the Azerbaijan\u2013Turkey alliance has strengthened, there has been progress in resolving the conflict with Armenia, while Russia is losing its position in the South Caucasus and trying to regain it).<\/span><\/p>\n

I recall several episodes involving Azerbaijanis from my past human rights work.<\/p>\n

2011, the village of Sagra \u2013 40 km from Yekaterinburg. A household dispute between neighbors, the police refuse to come, and one of the disputants (an ethnic Romani man) calls for help from a criminal leader. An armed group arrived to the village, it consisted of guys of different origin, but the media persistently call them an \u201cAzerbaijani gang.\u201d Locals arm themselves with a double-barreled shotgun; in the shootout, one attacker \u2013 an ethnic Azerbaijani \u2013 is killed, and the gang retreats. A nationalist campaign begins: Yekaterinburg is plastered with stickers reading \u201cI\u2019ll marry a Sagra man,\u201d T-shirts saying \u201cSagra, we\u2019re with you\u201d appear, politicians call on \u201cnative residents\u201d to arm themselves against \u201cethnic occupiers,\u201d the internet is full of music videos glorifying the Sagra locals and extremist calls to \u201csort out the intruders.\u201d Azerbaijani-owned businesses are subjected to strict inspections and closures. High officers in the local police were dismissed; the newly appointed investigators determine that the \u201cGypsy drug business\u201d and \u201cAzerbaijani mafia\u201d in Sagra were fake, and the real cause of the conflict was personal enmity.<\/span><\/p>\n

Also in the 2010s, I remember my surprise when in a regular state school I found an \u201cAzerbaijani floor\u201d \u2013 as opposed to the \u201cOrthodox floor\u201d (this was the wording used by the teachers). Segregation in schools was nothing new to us \u2013 we had already seen widely spread \u201cGypsy classes\u201d and \u201cGypsy schools\u201d in places of living of large Romani communities \u2013 but segregation of Azerbaijani children was happening in the very center of St. Petersburg.<\/span><\/p>\n

2015, St. Petersburg: a criminal incident occurs involving two Azerbaijanis. Governor Poltavchenko calls the head of the Azerbaijani National-Cultural Autonomy, Mamishev. As the governor\u2019s advisor on national issues, Mamishev gathers all the leaders of St. Petersburg\u2019s \u201cdiaspora\u201d national organizations and proposes de facto collective responsibility: \u201cWe will make a list of caf\u00e9s, restaurants, and markets run by our people. And if a crime happens there, the owners will be held responsible for not reporting what was happening on their premises.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

2024: MP Pyotr Tolstoy calls for an end to \u201cinterethnic liberalism\u201d and equates national diasporas, hometown associations, and communities with \u201clegalized mafia structures\u201d with their own laws and customs parallel to Russian ones.<\/p>\n

These episodes add up to a fairly characteristic picture of ethnic minority life in Russia. On the one hand, there are some opportunities to develop national life (for example, the law on national\u2013cultural autonomies). On the other hand, there is criminalization of defending the rights of Indigenous peoples and ethnic minorities \u2013 and of the entire agenda of regionalism, federalism, self-determination, and identity; discrimination (school segregation of children being the most obvious example); application of collective responsibility; vulnerability to far-right extremist groups supported by high-ranking Russian officials; and accusations of creating \u201cmafia structures\u201d and \u201cparallel laws.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

The idea of equal laws and equality before the law was voiced by Russian propagandists in response to the escalation of the Russian\u2013Azerbaijani conflict. For example, Mardan, a colleague of the odious Solovyov, said that Russia is within its rights \u2013 the detained Azerbaijanis are Russian citizens, and everyone is equal before the law regardless of origin or of the fact when\/how they got their Russian passport \u2013 so what does Azerbaijan have to do with this, and why is it interfering? (As if torture and brutal detention of anyone at all could ever be acceptable.)<\/span><\/p>\n

If this talk of equality before the law was pure hypocrisy from the propagandists\u2019 side, sometimes local authorities try to use this argument to restrain xenophobic aggression. In reports from so called \u201cpeople\u2019s gatherings\u201d (this is the name of people\u2019s meetings as a reaction to some sensitive events) in regions where incidents or even mass riots involving ethnic minorities occur, you can see how local leaders try to explain to the crowd that crimes, accidents, and other incidents must be investigated regardless of the ethnicity of those involved. But the public doesn\u2019t agree: household disputes between neighbors, reactions to traffic accidents, and especially criminal incidents where someone is seriously injured or killed very easily and quickly turn into pogroms and mass riots. This shows that the level of hatred and xenophobia in Russian society is very high. The examples are both outdated (Sagra, with the Azerbaijanis) and recent (Chemodanovka, Korkino, and now the Saratov region \u2013 where the ethnic majority is demanding the expulsion of the Romani minority \u2013 who, of course, are Russian citizens).<\/span><\/p>\n

Russia\u2019s state national policy, developed and implemented under the leadership of the FADN (Federal Agency for Ethnic Affairs), declares two components: strengthening the civic nation of \u201cRossiyane = citizens of Russia\u201d and supporting the cultures of Russia\u2019s peoples. It has often been noted that the first component greatly outweighs the second one, and in practice results in Russification and disregard for the rights of ethnic minorities. Now the FADN has published a draft of an updated \u201cState National Policy Strategy until 2036,\u201d in which these tendencies are preserved and strengthened. The head of the FADN, Igor Barinov, went so far as to repeat a blatantly fascist slogan I remember from Zhirinovsky\u2019s election campaign: \u201cWhen things are good for Russians, it\u2019s good for everyone.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Discrimination against minorities and the infringement of their rights is a source of tension \u2013 and it is in the interests of the state and the entire population to defuse that tension. Letting the genie of aggressive nationalism out of the bottle is easy; putting it back is far harder. Bad for minorities\u2013 bad for everyone.<\/span><\/p>\n

Olga Abramenko, expert of ADC Memorial
\nFirst published on the blog of Radio Svoboda<\/a> (in Russian)<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A Russian\u2013Azerbaijani scandal is in full scale, sparked by the brutal detention and torture of ethnic Azerbaijanis in Yekaterinburg, which resulted in the deaths of two of them and severe beatings of others. Random Russian citizens, harshly detained in Azerbaijan,…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":36310,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[362],"tags":[215],"strategy_cases":[],"campaign":[],"archive":[],"filter-content":[],"regions":[584,515],"class_list":["post-36307","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-columns","tag-minorities-rights-en","regions-azerbaijan","regions-russia"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"featured_image_urls_v2":{"full":["https:\/\/adcmemorial.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/1june4.png",922,574,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/adcmemorial.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/1june4-125x125.png",125,125,true],"medium":["https:\/\/adcmemorial.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/1june4-300x187.png",300,187,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/adcmemorial.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/1june4-768x478.png",640,398,true],"large":["https:\/\/adcmemorial.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/1june4-650x405.png",640,399,true],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/adcmemorial.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/1june4.png",922,574,false],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/adcmemorial.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/1june4.png",922,574,false],"pub-thumb":["https:\/\/adcmemorial.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/1june4-220x137.png",220,137,true],"post-thumb":["https:\/\/adcmemorial.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/1june4-170x170.png",170,170,true],"wcicon":["https:\/\/adcmemorial.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/1june4.png",48,30,false],"wcsquare":["https:\/\/adcmemorial.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/1june4.png",300,187,false],"wcsmall":["https:\/\/adcmemorial.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/1june4.png",250,156,false],"wcstandard":["https:\/\/adcmemorial.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/1june4.png",550,342,false],"wcbig":["https:\/\/adcmemorial.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/1june4.png",800,498,false],"wcfixedheightsmall":["https:\/\/adcmemorial.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/1june4.png",289,180,false],"wcfixedheightmedium":["https:\/\/adcmemorial.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/1june4.png",482,300,false],"wcfixedheight":["https:\/\/adcmemorial.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/1june4.png",803,500,false],"wccarouselsmall":["https:\/\/adcmemorial.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/1june4.png",210,131,false],"wccarousel":["https:\/\/adcmemorial.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/1june4.png",400,249,false],"wcslider":["https:\/\/adcmemorial.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/1june4.png",803,500,false]},"post_excerpt_stackable_v2":"

A Russian\u2013Azerbaijani scandal is in full scale, sparked by the brutal detention and torture of ethnic Azerbaijanis in Yekaterinburg, which resulted in the deaths of two of them and severe beatings of others. Random Russian citizens, harshly detained in Azerbaijan, were also beaten; the Azerbaijani authorities responded \u201csymmetrically\u201d to Russian lawlessness and violence by deliberately engaging in public lawlessness and violence of their own. Experts and journalists have already published several reviews of how Russian\u2013Azerbaijani relations have developed over the past decades: recalling the tragedy of the downed plane, the fact that such cases of police abuse against Azerbaijanis \u2013…<\/p>\n","category_list_v2":"Columns<\/a>","author_info_v2":{"name":"admin3","url":"https:\/\/adcmemorial.org\/en\/author\/admin3\/"},"comments_num_v2":"0 comments","amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/adcmemorial.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36307","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/adcmemorial.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/adcmemorial.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adcmemorial.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adcmemorial.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=36307"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/adcmemorial.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36307\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":36314,"href":"https:\/\/adcmemorial.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36307\/revisions\/36314"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adcmemorial.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/36310"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/adcmemorial.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=36307"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adcmemorial.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=36307"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adcmemorial.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=36307"},{"taxonomy":"strategy_cases","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adcmemorial.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/strategy_cases?post=36307"},{"taxonomy":"campaign","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adcmemorial.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/campaign?post=36307"},{"taxonomy":"archive","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adcmemorial.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/archive?post=36307"},{"taxonomy":"filter-content","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adcmemorial.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/filter-content?post=36307"},{"taxonomy":"regions","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adcmemorial.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/regions?post=36307"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}