VZCZCXRO0954
RR RUEHLN RUEHPOD RUEHSK RUEHVK RUEHYG
DE RUEHMO #3688/01 3541422
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
R 191422Z DEC 08
FM AMEMBASSY MOSCOW
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 1264
INFO RUCNCIS/CIS COLLECTIVE
RUEHXD/MOSCOW POLITICAL COLLECTIVE

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 03 MOSCOW 003688 
 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PGOV PHUM PINR PREL RS SOCI
SUBJECT: NATIONALIST GROUP MARCHES PEACEFULLY, BUT 
EXTREMISM ON RISE IN RUSSIA 
 
REF: MOSCOW 3254 
 
¶1. (SBU)  Summary.  On December 12, Constitution Day, the 
Movement Against Illegal Immigration (DPNI) and the Slavic 
Union held the second "Russian March" in as many months.  The 
peaceful and authorized gathering, attended by approximately 
300 supporters under the banner "Support Your Constitution," 
took place under suspicious circumstances after the death of 
one DPNI leader and two separate attacks on two others during 
the previous week.  Several demonstrators waved white, 
yellow, and black tricolor flags and gave Nazi salutes, but 
none dared shout nationalist slogans considering the 
overwhelming special police (OMON) presence, a proximate 
cause for arrest at the last "Russian March" on November 4. 
The rally fell against the backdrop of an increasing number 
of hate crimes and judicial procedures against skinhead 
groups, and government calls for increased surveillance and 
tolerance.  End Summary. 
 
DPNI Leaders Killed, Wounded 
---------------------------- 
 
¶2. (SBU)  On December 12, The Movement Against Illegal 
Immigration (DPNI) and the Slavic Union held an authorized 
rally of the "Russian March," the nationalist group 
co-organized by the two groups in Moscow in June 2008, in 
central Moscow less than a week after DPNI leadership 
suffered suspicious casualties.  On December 7, DPNI Deputy 
Director and Security Service Director Ivan Lebedev died in a 
car accident in Moscow's suburbs, just one night after a 
vicious attack against DPNI leader Aleksandr Belov. 
Lebedev's car collided with a cargo van early in the morning 
of the 7th, killing him and leaving two other DPNI members in 
the car wounded.  Unknown assailants attacked and beat DPNI 
leader Aleksandr Belov with metal sticks on December 6 in 
Lyuberts, a Moscow suburb, hospitalizing him with a 
concussion and several head and face wounds.  Belov did not 
file a lawsuit, perhaps because he already faced two lawsuits 
for inciting hatred, but promised 10,000 USD to anyone 
identifying the perpetrators of the attack or its sponsors. 
Later the same day, an unknown attacker threw a cherry bomb 
at Belov's brother and DPNI-Moscow Coordinator, Vladimir 
Basmanov, as he sat in a Moscow internet cafe.  Basmanov was 
not wounded. 
 
¶3. (SBU)  The events prompted rumors that DPNI leader 
Aleksandr Belov would cancel the planned December 12 march 
and encourage friends to attend Lebedev's funeral, scheduled 
for the same time.  Allied nationalist party Slavic Union's 
leader Dmitry Demushkin announced on December 9 that 
activists would march peacefully to the Griboyedov Monument 
along Clean Ponds (Chisty Prudy) Boulevard, and that they 
expected no interference from city authorities or the special 
police (OMON).  Demushkin called attention to the slogans 
activists would use, including "Observe Your Constitution," 
"Owners of Russia - Citizens, Not Bureaucrats," and "We 
Demand Freedom of Speech!" and reassured police detachments 
and city authorities that the rally would be peaceful.  On 
December 12, demonstrators waved white, yellow, and black 
tricolor flags and carried a banner reading "Observe Your 
Constitution," appealing to viewers to allow freedom of 
speech on Constitution Day. 
 
Rumor Mill: Uncertain Who Attacked Belov 
---------------------------------------- 
 
¶4. (SBU)  The "Russian March" Organizational Committee 
responded to the "unprecedented pressure" by posting the 
message "It does not scare us!" on the DPNI website. 
However, Basmanov admitted that if the events were a 
coincidence, it was "a very scary coincidence" and seemed to 
be either "mysticism, or very thoroughly planned."  Demushkin 
speculated that Belov's attackers owed allegiance to the 
"Antifa" (Anti-fascists organization), or to someone that 
works under "Antifa," and expected a similar attack directed 
against him in the near future.  SOVA Center Deputy Director 
Galina Kozhevnikova believed that the attacks against Belov 
must have an underlying political cause, but could be 
connected to Belov's shady business ties.  Kozhevnikova also 
commented on Russian March internal battles, noting that some 
nationalists are fighting to "clean the ranks."  In fact, one 
faction of the DPNI voted to remove Belov as its leader in a 
summer party congress, yet the majority still supported his 
leadership. 
 
Regional Support for DPNI 
------------------------- 
 
¶5. (SBU)  On December 6, the Nizhy Novgorod regional branch 
of the DPNI held a picket against ethnic crime, and decried 
Russian government plans to increase the quota for foreign 
 
MOSCOW 00003688  002 OF 003 
 
 
laborers to four million people.  Demonstrators carried signs 
reading "Not Legalization, But Deportation!" as well as 
"Gastarbeiter -- the Scourge of Russia" and "We are defending 
our Women and Children."  According to the DPNI, the recent 
rape of a 12-year old Russian girl by attackers from the 
"Caucasus," and the passive approach by oblast law 
enforcement agencies to track down those responsible, served 
as an impetus for the demonstration.  The crime drew 
parallels to the October rape and murder of 15-year old 
Muscovite Anna Beshnova by an Uzbek migrant, considered by 
some experts to be the spark to increased ethnic violence in 
the city. 
 
Russia Forecast? Skinheads To Kill More Minorities 
--------------------------------------------- ----- 
 
¶6. (SBU)  Several acts of extremism over the past month 
suggested that the wave of violence may continue to worsen. 
Moscow Police Chief Vladimir Pronin promised to increase 
patrols in the wake of attacks against ethnic minorities over 
the past month, including the gruesome murder and beheading 
of a Tajik migrant worker.  Other possible cases included the 
Moscow murders of an 18-year old Kazakh student, a Tajik 
warehouse laborer, an Azerbaijani national, and a Ukrainian 
man over a two-day period.  Several experts have attributed 
violence to aggression against labor migrants.  Head of the 
Committee for Inter-regional Relations and National Policy in 
the Moscow City Government Mikhail Solomentsev told Moscow 
Center TV on December 15 that Moscow did not need migrant 
workers at all, and approved of the federal government's 
decision to halve quotas for migrant workers.  Interior 
Minister of Kabardino-Balkaria Republic Major General Yuriy 
Tomchak complained on December 12 about the increase of 
extremism, xenophobia, and nationalism in Russia, and 
promised that local authorities would revise methods for 
combating the problem.  According to Tomchak, religious sects 
and informal youth organizations with radical views have been 
causing social disturbances, and unified extremist groups are 
pushing criminals out of the business sector.  He also 
attributed part of the problem to the rise in radical Islam. 
 
¶7. (SBU)  Two high-profile court proceedings against skinhead 
bands in Russia moved forward in December.  On December 15, 
the Moscow City Court sentenced Artur Reno and Pavel 
Skachevskiy, organizers of a Moscow skinhead group, to ten 
years in prison each for 20 murders and 12 attempted murders 
between August 2006 and October 2007 of citizens of 
Tajikistan, China, Azerbaijan, and Russia.  The jury regarded 
all members, other than Reno and Skachevskiy, as deserving 
leniency, sentencing seven members to terms ranging from 6 to 
20 years, and fully acquitting two members.  The prosecutors 
attributed the skinhead group's motivation to "influence by 
the ideas of pre-eminence of ethnic Russians and the 
inferiority of non-Slavs" and decried the absence of life 
sentences.  On December 10, St. Petersburg authorities 
completed the investigation into the Borovikov-Voyevodin 
gang, accused of killing a Nigerian and North Korean in 2003, 
the ethnic hatred expert Nikolai Girenko in 2004, and a 
Senegalese man in 2006.  The indictment against the 13 
defendants, known for propogating neo-Nazi ideology, has been 
forwarded to court.  In a reference to the court case, Putin 
addressed the seriousness of extremism on December 4, saying 
that "Russia will remain a great nation if all its people, 
including even small ethnic groups, feel at home." 
 
Ethnic Violence Moves Into Schools 
---------------------------------- 
 
¶8. (SBU)  Moscow's law enforcement agencies have grown more 
concerned about the rise in interethnic conflicts in higher 
education institutes in November and December.  The murder of 
18-year old North Ossetian Oleg Chertikrev at Moscow 
Pedagogical State University prompted intense scrutiny of an 
already recognized problem.  Police have documented several 
attacks between Georgians and Dagestanis, Azerbaijanis and 
Armenians, Vietnamese and Chinese, and other ethnicities. 
The Moscow Investigations Directorate of the Russian 
Prosecutor General's Office also launched a probe to 
determine the online publisher of an extremist book called 
the "Manual on Street Terror," suspected of encouraging 
ethnic attacks among different youth groups.  Police in 
Moscow detained more than 500 youth suspected of extremism in 
2008, and the number of criminal cases opened under Article 
280 (public calls for extremism) and Article 282 (inciting of 
hate or strife) doubled from 2007 to 60, according to Pronin. 
 Moscow Mayor Yuriy Luzhkov urged police and public 
organizations on December 17 to work together to "neutralize 
any extremist rallies" in the coming year. 
 
Comment 
------- 
 
MOSCOW 00003688  003.2 OF 003 
 
 
 
¶9. (U)  Inherent racism in Russia continues to manifest 
itself in unsavory ways, and increased police patrols and 
government admonishment promise to only slow the problem. 
Government suspicion of civil society development programs 
and law enforcement sympathy with nationalist activities 
bodes poorly for positive results in the near future.  As 
police crack down on obvious, organized targets like the 
DPNI, nationalist groups will move further underground and 
may unite with more extremist elements, making arrests and 
public confrontation of the problem more difficult. 
BEYRLE