Racism in Russia mainly appears in the form of negative attitudes towards non-ethnic Russian citizens, immigrants or tourists and negative actions against them by some Russians. Traditionally, Russian racism includes antisemitism and Tatarophobia, as well as hostility towards the various peoples of the Caucasus, Central Asia, East Asia, South Asia and Africa.
According to the United Nations, Russia's immigrant population is the world's fifth-largest, numbering over 9.1 million. Due to the country's declining population, low birth rates, and high death rates of ethnic Russians, the Russian government has tried to increase immigration to the country in the last decade. This has led to the increase of millions of migrants into Russia, mainly from post-Soviet states, including many who migrated illegally and remain undocumented.
Under serious police pressure, the number of racist acts started to decline in Russia from 2009. In 2016, it was reported that Russia had seen an “impressive" decrease in hate crimes.
Xenophobia
In the late 19th century, especially after nationalistic uprisings occurred in Poland, the government expressed xenophobia in its hostility towards ethnic minorities which did not speak Russian. The government decided to reduce the use of other languages, and it insisted that minorities which did not speak Russian should be Russified.A. V. Astakhova, "Xenophobia in the Public and Pedagogical Thought of the Russian Empire of the Nineteenth and Early Twentieth Centuries (Pre-Soviet Period)." Russian Social Science Review 62.1-3 (2021): 16-22.
By the beginning of the 20th century, most European Jews lived in the so-called Pale of Settlement, the Western frontier of the Russian Empire which generally consisted of the modern-day countries of Poland, Lithuania, Belarus and neighboring regions. Many pogroms accompanied the Revolution of 1917 and the ensuing civil war, an estimated 70,000 to 250,000 Jewish civilians were killed in atrocities which were committed throughout the former Russian Empire; the number of Jewish orphans exceeded 300,000.Hilary L. Rubinstein, Daniel C. Cohn-Sherbok, Abraham J. Edelheit, William D. Rubinstein, The Jews in the Modern World, Oxford University Press, 2002.
In the 2000s, tens of thousands of people joined neo-Nazi groups inside Russia. Racism against both the Russian citizens (peoples of the Caucasus, Indigenous peoples of Siberia and Russian Far East, etc.) and non-Russian citizens of Africans, Central Asians, South Asians (Indians, Pakistanis, Bangladeshis, Srilankans), East Asians (Vietnamese, Chinese, etc.) and Europeans (Ukrainians, etc.) is a significant problem.
In 2016, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty reported that "Researchers who track xenophobia in Russia have recorded an "impressive" decrease in hate crimes because the authorities appear to have stepped up pressure on far-right groups".
Using information which was collected during surveys which were conducted in 1996, 2004, and 2012, Hannah S. Chapman, et al. reports a steady increase in Russians' negative attitudes towards seven outgroups. Muscovites especially became more xenophobic.Hannah S. Chapman, et al. "Xenophobia on the rise? Temporal and regional trends in xenophobic attitudes in Russia." Comparative Politics 50.3 (2018): 381-394.
Public sentiments and politics + Number of racist attacks victims according to SOVA Center Year Deaths Injuries 2004 46 208 2005 47 461 2006 62 564 2007 85 605 2008 109 486 2009 84 434 2010 38 377 2011 20 130 2012 18 171 2013 20 173 2014 19 103 2015 9 68 2016 7 69 2017 4 64 2018 4 52 Total 572 3965 4537
In 2006, Amnesty International reported that racism in Russia was "out of control." Russia also has one of the highest immigration rates in Eastern Europe.
Between 2004 and 2008, there were more than 350 racist murders, and Verkhovsky, the leader of the anti-racist SOVA organization, estimated that around 50% of Russians thought that ethnic minorities should be expelled from their region. Vladimir Putin meanwhile was deeply critical of the view that Russia should be "for ethnic Russians", citing the need to maintain harmony in a multiethnic federation. Western commentators have noted that during this period, racist and ultranationalist groups may have been the most significant right-wing opposition to Putin's government.
On 20 April 2011, Konstantin Poltoranin, spokesman for Federal Migratory Service, was fired after saying the "survival of the white race was at stake."
On 24 October 2013, speaking during the Poedinok programme on the Russia 1 television channel, the leader of Russia's extreme nationalist Liberal Democratic Party of Russia, Vladimir Zhirinovsky, known for his headline-grabbing outbursts, called for imposing limits on the birth rate in the Muslim-dominated North Caucasus region of Russia, and restricting the movement of people from that region across the country. These outbursts occurred shortly after the terrorist attack in Volgograd, which left several Russians dead. Zhirinovsky later apologized for his words.The Moscow Times: Chechen LDPR Breaks With National Organization Over Zhirinovsky Comments During the programme, there was a live population poll conducted via text messaging and the internet. Zhirinovsky won that popular vote, with over 140 thousand Russians voting in favour of him.Lenta.ru: Митрохин обвинил Жириновского в экстремизме Lenta.ru Mitrohin accuses Zhirinovsky of extremism Some Russian nationalists believe the best way to stop the uptick in Muslim migration is by using oppressive tactics to "stem the tide". In 2006, in the town of Kondopoga, Karelian republic, a brawl in a café involving Chechen migrants and local Russians turned into a massive riot that lasted for several days.
Publishers and periodicals Literature of a neopagan, racist, antisemitic, and anti-Christian nature is published by the Moscow publishing house Russkaya Pravda, officially registered in 1994, founded by the neopagan publicist Alexander Aratov (Ogneved). The publishing house aims to "publish and distribute literature on Aryan-Slavic-Russian issues." Mainly, it publishes the newspaper Russkaya Pravda. The publishers of Russkaya Pravda advertised Alexey Dobrovolsky (Dobroslav), one of the founders of Russian neopaganism.
In 1997, Valery Yemelyanov, one of the founders of Russian neopaganism, along with a small number of followers, joined Aratov's small movement and became editor-in-chief of the Russkaya Pravda newspaper. Since 1997, the Russkaya Pravda publishing house, represented by Aratov, has formed, together with the Kaluga Slavic community and other groups, the core of the large neopagan association SSO SRV. In the fall of 2001, some former leaders of the People's National Party and Russian National Unity, as well as the editors of the Russkaya Pravda newspaper, united to create the National Power Party of Russia. Historian Victor Schnirelmann characterizes the publishing house and the newspaper Russkaya Pravda as antisemitic.
The Belye Alvy publishing house publishes racist literature. In St. Petersburg, the books of the Belye Alvy publishing house were distributed by the newspaper Za Russkoye Delo. St. Petersburg human rights activists Ruslan Linkov and Yuri Vdovin have repeatedly appealed to the authorities with a demand to check the facts of the publication of "all kinds of Nazi literature" by the publishing house Belye Alvy.
In 1999, Vladimir Avdeyev (the creator of the doctrine of "racology" about the superiority of the Nordic race) started a series of books called the "Library of Racial Thought" by the Belye Alvy publishing house, under the heading of which he published the works of Russian racial theorists and classics of Western racial theory; in particular, he republished well-known racist writings of the beginning of the 20th century, such as Ludwig Woltmann's Political Anthropology and the works of Hans F. K. Günther, a propagandist of racial anthropology during the Nazi period.
The founder of the band DK, Sergei Zharikov, wrote about the unconditionally pagan nature of rock culture and supported the national idea and messianism. Referencing the works of academician Boris Rybakov, he argued that the pagan ideology is most suitable for the struggle for the independence of the Russian land. Zharikov became the publisher of the neo-Nazi magazine Attack, which pays great attention to neopagan ideas.
Over the years, the fascist newspaper Russian Revansh, the neo-Nazi newspaper Zemshchina, and the racist magazine Heritage of Ancestors have been published. The Knizhny Mir publishing house disseminates racial ideas.
Targeted groups Africans
Official attitudes towards African people were nominally neutral during the Soviet Union, because of its internationalist agenda. As a part of its support of decolonization of Africa, the Soviet Union offered free education for selected citizens of African states. However, once in the Soviet Union, these students experienced everyday racism directed at them from all classes of society. In 1963, Moscow was the site of spontaneous protests which saw African students protest the murder of a black man, who was killed by a family of the Russian woman he was dating.
In 2006, some exchange students claimed that "monkey" insults were so frequent that students ceased reporting them.Jackson, Patrick. (24 February 2006). "Living with race hate in Russia". BBC News. Accessed 15 February 2010.
In 2010, Jean Sagbo became the first black man in Russia to be elected to government. He is a municipal councillor in the village of Novozavidovo, north of Moscow.
In 2013, Member of Duma Irina Rodnina publicly posted a picture showing Obama with a banana on Twitter.
A Tatar owned supermarket in Tatarstan sold calendars with images of American president Obama depicted as a monkey and initially refused to apologize for selling the calendar. They were then forced to issue an apology later.
In mid-2016, after tensions rose between the US and Russia, a Tatarstan ice cream factory produced "Obamka" (little Obama) ice cream with packaging showing a black child wearing an earring; the move was seen as an illustration of both anti-Americanism in Russia and enduring, Soviet-era racism in the country. The company, which stated that the ice cream was not intended to be political, halted production of the line shortly after the controversy arose.Russian Company Halts 'Little Obama' Ice Cream Production, Moscow Times (11 May 2016).
Crimean Tatars Discrimination against Crimean Tatars was state-enforced during the Soviet era through the racially based special settlement system, which confined the deported Crimean Tatar nation in small perimeters within Central Asia and the Mari ASSR and deprived them of a variety of civil liberties that other peoples had. While no longer officially a state-mandated institution, prejudice and negative attitudes against Crimean Tatars remain pervasive throughout government and society; a notable example being when Russian consul Vladimir Andreev demanded that none of the invited Russian citizens attend the debut of Haytarma, a film about Crimean Tatar twice Hero of the Soviet Union Amet-khan Sultan, claiming that the film could not possibly be accurate because it was directed by a Crimean Tatar.
Peoples of the Caucasus
In Russia, the word "Caucasian" is a collective term referring to anyone descended from the native ethnic groups of the Caucasus. In Russian slang, Peoples of the Caucasus are called black; this name-calling comes from their relatively darker features. Since the dissolution of the Soviet Union, the rise of the Muslim population in Russia and the Second Chechen War, many Russian radical nationalists have associated Islam and Muslims with terrorism and domestic crimes. In 2010 Julia Ioffe wrote that this was similar to stereotyping faced by Italian Americans in historical eras.