Discrimination of ethnic minorities inside Russia and beyond - OPINION
By Peter Tase
The Russian Federation, from the outset of launching the brutal war of aggression against Ukraine on February 24th, 2022, has simultaneously implemented social and economic policies that openly discriminate and oppress the non-Russian minority groups including Tatars, Chechens, Bashkirs, Chuvash, Avars, Armenians and Ukrainians. Inside Russia there are over 589 thousand of Dargins citizens, the second largest group, inhabiting Dagestan; meanwhile Azerbaijanis (with over 2.5 million residents) represent one of the largest ethnic minorities and diaspora groups inside Russia’s territory.
A unique characteristic is that Dagestan is one of the strongest bastions of conservative Islam in the Russian Federation.
Ukrainians, on the other hand, represent the third-largest ethnic group in Russia, as the census data indicates a population of over five million people living inside the Russian territory.
While an alarming degree of homegrown discrimination is more than evident, promising international public discourse issued by Government Authorities, is making the current socio – economic reality of minority groups inside Russia even murkier and gravely difficult to address, as non-Russian ethnic groups have surprisingly built enormous resilience against external circumstances and economic hardships, imposed by Russian citizens.
Just as it was common practice, during the reign of Catherine the Great (1762–1796), deep systemic discrimination continues to further fracture Russia’s social cohesion, multicultural integration and lack of tolerance observed between Russian population and their non-Russian fellow countrymen.
In the XVIII Century, Russian society was facing an environment that was characterized by a deep systemic discrimination. Moscow’s anti-minority policies are an endemic cultural problem that is deeply ingrained within the landscape of dominion and bravado that Russia’s population and government culture have encouraged as an oppressive posture against minority groups. Unlike its other neighboring European nations, Russia is a country that is submerged into a culture of humiliation, bulling and permanent obsession with waging wars at the doorsteps of Europe and conducting hybrid warfare in other parts of the globe.
As tracking of global conflict continues to highlight a historic rise in protracted warfare, Russian authorities in early March 2022 have increased harassment, racist violence, labor discrimination, prohibited religious ceremonies in the Southern Ukrainian City of Melitopol, immediately after Russian occupation.
Russian Secret Service operatives, after persecuting pro-Ukrainian activists, former government officials and human rights defenders, have since targeted the churches and their pastors and congregants.
According to special correspondent Simon Ostrovsky, supported by the Pulitzer Center: “All across Russian-occupied Ukraine, soldiers are shutting down places of worship that don't fit the world Vladimir Putin wants to build. Since the occupation, evangelical congregations, Protestant churches, all the non-Russian Orthodox Christian faiths have been deemed undesirable, and tens of thousands of believers have been forced to flee. Those who remain gather in secret in private homes for fear of angering the new regime.”
According to reliable European scholars, and independent monitoring groups, Russian forces have damaged or destroyed more than 600 churches, synagogues, mosques, and other religious sites since the start of Moscow’s full-scale invasion.
Russia has killed more than 50 Ukrainian priests, pastors, and other religious leaders during its military invasion, and many others have been abducted, detained, tortured, or forcibly disappeared in occupied territories.
Protestant, Catholic, Muslim, members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Crimean Tatar, and Orthodox Christian communities not aligned with the Russian Orthodox Church have been subjected to raids, have been forced to re-registration under Russian law, have become a victim of intimidation, and criminal prosecution, with many congregations driven underground or permanently shuttered.
The Russian Orthodox Church, led by Patriarch Kirill of Moscow, has publicly framed the invasion of Ukraine in theological terms, describing the war as a holy war having metaphysical significance and stating in a September 2022 sermon that if a soldier dies in the performance of military duty, this sacrifice washes away all the sins that a person has committed.
According to the Committee on International Religious Freedom, Russian de facto authorities often commit religious freedom violations to facilitate the dominance of the Russian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate in these territories, that are considered as a sovereign territory of Ukraine, by International Law.
In continuation of major geopolitical events and security incidents, anti-migrant sentiments inside Russian territory, have surged. This has led to an increase in harassment, random police checks, and racist violence committed against most members of minority groups living in the country.
Currently Tatar Muslims, although officially recognized as a minority group, face strict government control, while Crimean Tatars endure systemic, politically motivated persecution. International media has constantly reported disproportionate targeting during the forced military conscription and mobilization driven by Moscow’s police operatives.
Those Crimean Tatars, in the diaspora or visiting Moscow from the captured peninsula often face intense surveillance, monitoring, and suspicion from the Federal Security Service (FSB) due to perceived opposition to the Russian occupation.
Many landlords refuse to rent to non-Slavic tenants, a common practice documented in housing and printed job adds. This leaves ethnic minority groups and migrants vulnerable to miserable living conditions.
In Russia, a policy of Islamophobia is allegedly being implemented at the state level, when people are persecuted for their religion, holy books are banned, forceful measures are taken on the territory of religious buildings, and Muslim women are forbidden to wear clothes in accordance with their religious beliefs.
The contours of cultural chauvinism are molded on the psychological stamina of every Russian national, whose social and economic status is highly privileged, superior and is vested with the authority to discriminate and humiliate representatives of minority group living inside Lenin’s motherland.
The Russian Federation will never become a dignifying home for other peoples and non-Christians. The level of everyday xenophobia is confirmed by relevant sociological studies conducted internationally, which record a high level of national prejudice in Russia. Lenin’s motherland daily resonates social conflicts and animosity based on ethnic and religious origin. According to open sources, there are numerous videos about the facts of xenophobia inside the Russian army, even at the frontlines.
Russia’s political machine and government elite has unleashed a mechanism nurtured in sadistic cruelty against the predominant minority groups living in its extensive land mass.
Despite the declarations to the contrary, the Russian Federation has historically demonstrated that it will not become a genuine native land for “non-Russians”.
All “non-Russians” feel like second-class citizens inside the Russian Federation. As we have observed since 2014, in the War of Aggression against Ukraine, Russian typical demonic empire, which continues to include dozens of independent ethnic groups – brutally enslaved by Moscow – the very same evil spirit has permeated across the social fabric as it will increasingly become more vulnerable and fragile while Moscow is determined to weaken and humiliate the very same wealth of ethnic and cultural diversity it encompasses (that have taken shape in its swaths of territory, once known as the Russian Empire, the heir to Tsarist Russia and lately as USSR). The Russian Federation continues the traditions of the Russian Empire in wars of aggression.
The European Union and Western Democracies must take all necessary political measures and reflect on Moscow’s campaign of xenophobia and persecution of “non-Russians”; to denounce their overwhelming mechanism of torture and other brutal measures taken against certain groups due to their national origin and religious heritage, including their prior involvement in the “Special Military Operation (SVO)”.
Another negative ethnocultural phenomena is the expansion of a purposeful campaign of destruction of Ukrainian language (Linguicide), such a state policy is gaining momentum, as the number of speakers of indigenous languages is decreasing.
International Organizations and European Union institutions must condemn Moscow’s discrimination campaign and violence used against minority groups living in its territory; a vital move that would ensure a more prosperous and humane world.
Since 2014, the people of Ukraine have shown to the world the best way on how a nation can defend its sovereign territory, national identity, and democratic values, international law and the security of Europe in the face of a calamitous Russian military aggression that echoes a blatant violation of internationally recognized borders of a sovereign state and demonstrates Moscow’s unique arrogance in international diplomacy.
Endnotes:
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0169796X231168151
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/10/30/world/europe/russia-ukraine-war-torture-abuse.html
https://www.hrw.org/news/2017/11/14/crimea-persecution-crimean-tatars-intensifies
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