Galina Vladimirovna Koz evnikova Books

This book is a collection of the 2004, 2005 and 2006 annual reports as well as some additional statistics on 2007 compiled by Moscow’s SOVA Center for Information and Analysis. The reports are devoted to such issues as political nationalism; hate crimes; the use of police, administrative, political and social tools to counteract xenophobic violence; and the Russian authorities’ abuse of laws designed to counteract extremism, i. e. their cynical exploitation of this legislation for their own political purposes. Already in the middle of this decade, all of these problems were known to pose a certain threat to Russian society. In spite of the considerable public attention they received since then, only few effective measures have been taken and, thus, the situation is getting worse: The level of racist violence is increasing further and the spectrum of ultra-nationalist groups is consolidating. Moreover, representatives of the political elite have started to adopt cryptic and, sometimes, overtly xenophobic rhetoric. At the same time, the government’s current office holders actively utilize anti-extremist legislation to unlawfully restrict not only ultra-nationalist groups, but also the rights and liberties of other non-governmental and political organizations.

By the end of the 1990s, nationalism in Russia became closely associated with ethnic Russian nationalism, which underwent significant changes as the century turned. An increasingly stable ethno-xenophobic majority emerged, actively courted by various political figures. Leaders from all levels of government began to exploit negative ethnic stereotypes and xenophobic sentiments among the populace. The radical nationalist movement saw a rise in the prominence of Skinhead groups, alongside an alarming increase in racist violence across many regions of Russia. The neo-Nazi youth movement, while relatively independent, caught the attention of ultra-right ideologists, leading to connections between established ultra-nationalist organizations and Nazi Skin-groups. Current issues surrounding the rise of Russian nationalism include the dynamics of public expressions of ethnic and religious xenophobia, the functioning of informal structures within the movement, how nationalists appeal to the broader population, and the responses from the state and civil society. These themes are explored in reports from Moscow’s “Sova [Owl]” Information and Research Center, covering various aspects of xenophobia and radical nationalism from 2004 to 2007, highlighting incidents, societal attitudes, and governmental reactions.