Skinhead Attacks

Window on Eurasia:

Russian Nationalist Skinheads Attack Mari Cultural
Figures

Paul Goble

Tartu, May 31 - Less than a month after the European Parliament
condemned the Mari El authorities for human rights abuses, a group of 30
Russian skinheads shouted racist epithets at and then beat up 15 leading
Mari cultural figures Friday night in that Middle Volga republic's capital
city of Yoshkar-Ola (http://www.mari.ee, May 29-30).

Mari opposition groups say that several of the skinheads involved had told
them that Mari El officials had asked the notorious Russian National Unity
(RNE) organization to carry out the attacks and promised them both immunity
and rewards for doing so (Press release from the Information Center of
Finno-Ugric Peoples, May 31).

According to the Mari opposition, the skinheads -- who number some 2,000 in
Yoshkar-Ola alone according to "Izvestiyia Mari El" in its May 20-26 issue,
added Markelov's right-hand man, Andrei Tsaregorodtsev, had promised to
give the RNE a plot of land on which the group could organize a base for its
future activities.

But republic President Leonid Margelov has denied that he or his government
had had anything to do with the attacks and promised a thorough
investigation to identify the "persons unknown" who had beaten the Mari
figures, some of whom his office said were government employees
(http://gov.mari.ru/main/news/rep/pres/2005/3005_1.html .

Markelov's denial, however, is not entirely credible. On the one hand, he
has repeatedly denied any responsibility for similar attacks in the past but
failed to bring their perpetrators to justice, and he has long had close
ties to Russian nationalist extremists, including Vladimir Zhirinovsky's
Liberal Democratic Party.

And on the other, Markelov has routinely attacked the Mari opposition in
terms that recall those used against dissidents in Soviet times. Less than
72 hours after the latest beatings, Markelov arranged a declaration by local
officials against them and their foreign supporters
(http://gov.mari.ru/main/news/rep/life/2005/3005_1.html).

That hastily prepared declaration, passed not by the parliament as a whole
but signed only by four of the five faction heads within it, went
significantly beyond what the Russian Foreign Ministry had said on May 20.
At that time, the Russian MFA simply suggested that the European Parliament'
s action was based on misinformation.

Yesterday's declaration by the Mari El parliament leaders, however,
condemned that international action in the broadest possible terms, arguing
that it represented "a crude interference in the economic, social-political
and cultural life" of the Republic of Mari El.

It said that such criticism of the Mari El government reflected the joint
efforts of a small group of Maris without support at home who are prepared
to cooperate with those "international forces" who seek to spark ethnic
tensions there to distract attention from "the violation of the rights of
Russian speakers in the Baltic countries."

And it concluded with a ringing assertion that both the actions of the Mari
opposition and those of its international supporters in the European
Parliament or elsewhere "are condemned to fail regardless of their source."

Given the international attention that the European Parliament's action of
May 12 attracted to the situation in Mari El, this latest round of beatings
and statements almost certainly raises the stakes for all involved -- the
Mari opposition, Markelov himself, and the international community as well.

For the opposition, this latest round of beatings and the parliamentary
declaration are clear signals that Markelov has no plans to back off from
his approach and that if anything he plans to increase the level of
repression that he has visited upon the Republic of Mari El since becoming
president there in 2000.

For Markelov, these events represent a turning point. If he gets away with
them, he will probably be able to crush any opposition to himself for
sometime to come. But if Moscow decides that he has gone too far and that
his actions are causing trouble for Russian foreign policy, then Markelov
might find himself out in the cold.

And for the international community, these beatings and the parliamentary
declaration also represent a test. If the European Parliament and other
groups concerned with human rights decide that they have done all they can
in a small republic far away, then Markelov will probably be able to claim a
victory.

But if they view his actions and those of the most notorious skinheads as
threats to democracy and the rule of law not only in Mari El but in the
Russian Federation as a whole, then such international groups and
organizations will have to consider what they might do in response to change
that situation.

As Markelov and his supporters in Moscow understand, the international
community does not have that a large number of good options. But that many
in that community have bitter memories about what can happen when it fails
to take action against those who are prepared to use fascist groups to
intimidate their opponents.