Interesting Look at Russia

[rjm]

Im not sure if "Nashi" still do it but as of last year they were following the British Ambassador everywhere around the city shouting abuse and heckling him, the police were clearly told not to get involved as it was government approved behaviour, I know he raised it with top government but Im sure with our frosty relations not much happened as a result!

I never used to come across many expats apart from in thge central areas, Tverskaya, Kuznetsky Most etc, the place is so vast and it was unusual to bump in to some random expat in the suburbs.

Im not sure how big the expat scene is in St Pet but doubt its very big either!

 

The visa regulation changed in October of last year. 

Indeed its very difficult to receive such a work permit and many foreigners are leaving Russia.  The Russian gov't promotes a nationalistic ideology.  It promotes the ideology while at the same time likes to appear to put a break on these people.  Basically some of the less extreme nationalists are used for Kremlin purposes.  Like the "Nashi" take over of the Estonian embassy last year.  While there may indeed be a fair share of skinheads and nationalists here in Kiev.  The upside here at least is that its not a state sponsored ideology.

[ecocks]

My sense of the numbers, based upon the expat website and the TEFL boards, were about 2-3 times the [expat] population in Kyiv but it could just be that they were more active (and successful) building their virtual community.

The visa, registration and work permit situation seems to be damping down the enthusiasm for both visitors and job-seekers.  There have also been some reports on the expat site about the increasing difficulties in getting visas even for short-term visits.  At least one extremely large organization has ordered all employees to not travel to Russia and American students who were contemplating language studies in Russia are apparently rethinking their plans.  It is particularly interesting to consider how this will affect the Olympic buildup.  Normally, countries expect to increase their tourism, economic climate, construction and development by hosting an Olympics.  Russia, on the other hand, seems to be blissfully unaware of what a blackeye they will have after a poorly-attended event. 

As for the extremists, I got to looking at some of the YouTube TV and documentary excerpts over the last two years, it is pretty shocking.  It seems obvious that the government does little or nothing to curb this activity, turning a blind eye towards the bahavior and not pursuing investigation or prosecution with more than lip service and an occasional fine for disturbing the peace. It seems that this Format 18 Group in particular was obviously unconcerned with naming themselves and providing documentaries of how they trained for and carried out ethnic attacks.

[Chris]

I agree with most of what’s been said here, though I would add that in the three months that I spent in Nizhny Novgorod a few years back, I never experienced any kind of problems due to the fact I was a foreigner.  Similarly, the foreigners that I met there, most of them African, told me that they never had problems either.  NN is also a big city (3rd or 4th largest in Russia), but the numbers of foreigners there is - relative to Moscow and Peter - really small.  Maybe its more of a problem with those places than in the "provinces".

In contrast however, every single one of my foreign friends with dark skin here in Poland, whether African or central Asian, has stories of being harassed or attacked by hooligans. (Granted of course, nothing even remotely as serious as what you hear about from Moscow and St. Petersburg, but it still takes place.)  Last summer while in Donetsk I hung out a few times with some students from Nigeria who were doing a full 5-year degree program at the university. They told me that even after spending two years there, not a single one of them had experienced a race related incident.  For me, that was a bit shocking - in a good way. 


Nashi can be pretty scary…. brain-washed youth.  One doesn’t need to be able to speak Russian to understand the imagery on their website (www.nashi.su) … that’s .su for Soviet Union…


Finally, in that first video edcocks posted they talked about politician Dmitr Rogozin who was deemed too “xenophobic” for the duma and was made to stand down. They must have decided his “talents” could be better used badgering the west; he was made ambassador to NATO earlier this year.  The economist reported that NATO gave him some corner office on some bottom-far-away floor away from everybody.  Supposedly he hung a poster of Stalin leading a column of Soviet tanks across Europe…

[P-N]

As for the extremists, I got to looking at some of the YouTube TV and documentary excerpts over the last two years, it is pretty shocking.  It seems obvious that the government does little or nothing to curb this activity, turning a blind eye towards the bahavior and not pursuing investigation or prosecution with more than lip service and an occasional fine for disturbing the peace. It seems that this Format 18 Group in particular was obviously unconcerned with naming themselves and providing documentaries of how they trained for and carried out ethnic attacks.

Combat 18 (The UK equivilant) has been going at least 20 years with similar propaganda and activities.  It too is a minority organisation and has survived in the UK for that length of time (and still survives today).  Your point is what - Russia has  people in minority groups of the same ideology and activities as the UK, or Germany or France? - or that it is allowed to exist by Russia like it has done for decades in other countries? - or they are successfully prosecuted about as much as they are in other countries?

[ecocks]

Yeah Chris, it does seem that it is several orders of magnitude worse in the capital and St. Petersburg than in the provincial cities.   

[P-N]

When I lived in Moscow (2005/6) it was definately worse in St Pete - russian TV covered it quite extensively and frequently.

[JonathanCampion]

To follow up Ed's message, I lived in two smaller Russian towns, and never learned of any racist group (i.e Nashi) that targets the few foreigners that live in them.

There is, of course, a lot of unafilliated racism, but the only abuse I heard of from the African students I met was verbal. In Moscow it is physical (market traders from the Caucusus were treated awfully then, and it must have become worse) and organised (skinhead gangs patrolling even 2 minutes from Red Square).

[P-N]

To follow up Ed's message, I lived in two smaller Russian towns, and never learned of any racist group (i.e Nashi) that targets the few foreigners that live in them.

There is, of course, a lot of unafilliated racism, but the only abuse I heard of from the African students I met was verbal. In Moscow it is physical (market traders from the Caucusus were treated awfully then, and it must have become worse) and organised (skinhead gangs patrolling even 2 minutes from Red Square).

It must have changed dramatically since I was there then - when I was there, I saw almost daily protests (albeit no more than 5 or 6 people at any one time) in the street regarding Chechnya (no more than 500 meters from the Kremlin) and the only chance of getting a problem in Red Square was not having some money on you when you were stopped by the ever present militsia for donations to their pension plan......still these are only personal "prima facia" observations.

[ecocks]

Jon, most of the abuse stories seem to involve Moscow and St. Petersburg although the job impact seems to be all across Russia.  While August is a quiet time when TEFL teachers are normally taking their vacation, the reports give a general indication that requests for papers have stepped up.  The amazing part was that there are even 1 or 2 schools who are working teachers in rotation groups, alternating 90 in, 90 out.  Seems awfully expensive and cumbersome to me.  Eventually, you wold think the costs would reach a point where they would just work them legally.  The incident I was told first-hand involved a situation where the school and the individual were trying to get it done but felt the system was fighting them. 

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