3 immigrants killed in Russia as ethnic violence continues
Racially motivated attacks have risen sharply as white supremacists wage a violent campaign to drive out immigrants.
MOSCOW — Throats slashed and bodies dumped, three slain Uzbek immigrants were discovered in the Moscow region, police announced today as racial violence continued to climb starkly in Russia's streets.
This year has unleashed a dramatic increase in skinhead and neo-Nazi attacks, many of them aimed at Caucasian and Central Asian immigrants from hardscrabble former Soviet republics who flock to Russia to eke out a living. The bodies turn up beaten, bruised and stabbed, sometimes tortured or mutilated.
The first body discovered this week belonged to a 32-year-old Uzbek killed Tuesday night. Later that night, the bodies of two Uzbek brothers, ages 23 and 30, were found in a house under construction, according to the Russian Interfax news agency.
Human rights groups complain that the government has failed to staunch, and has even implicitly fostered, the ethnic violence. Racially motivated attacks have killed more than 50 people this year, compared with fewer than 20 such deaths in the same period last year. Critics accuse authorities of encouraging nationalistic, xenophobic groups and failing to thoroughly investigate or prosecute hate crimes.
In one case that was prosecuted,six Russian men were found guilty today of bombing a multiethnic market in Moscow in 2006. The blast, which killed 14 people and wounded 61, still stands as an emblematic attack in a continuing white supremacist campaign to drive immigrants out of Russia with violence.
The unsolved killings this week of the Uzbeks came to light on the eve of a planned demonstration in Moscow by the Movement Against Illegal Immigration, a group whose rallies have traditionally been gatherings for white supremacists and neo-Nazis, arms held high in salute to Adolf Hitler.
This group and other nationalistic organizations are permitted to hold regular rallies and marches in Russia and draw thousands of participants who shout racist slogans and demonstrate unmolested. By contrast, police often crack down on anti-government protests by pro-Western and human rights groups, and gay pride demonstrations are banned outright.
"Xenophobes feel comfortable in Russia. They feel protected," said Lev Ponomaryov, head of the Moscow-based For Human Rights organization. "It's very difficult to get the authorities to pay serious and adequate attention to these crimes."
