Nationalism in Russia

A recent informal political debate that was supposed to pit an SPS member (Maria Gaidara) and a United Russia representative (who never showed up) devovled into violence at the end. A member of Yabloko (Apple), the liberal political group was shot in an ensuing fight. This incident suggests a dangerous trend in Russia: the growing alliance between ultra nationalist groups and the "liberal" opposition to the Kremlin. See the following report from the anti-nationalist group Sova .


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Another disturbing tendency - suggesting some sort of «the Kondopoga effect» - was a lack of uniform position among the liberals concerning "acceptable boundaries of xenophobia.» So for example, in September, the Karelia branch of Garry Kasparov’s United Civil Front (UCF) ex-pressed virtual solidarity with perpetrators of pogroms in Kondopoga by praising their actions as a "manifestation of civic self-government." Notably, the UCF leaders - even though civil society ac-tivists specifically tried to draw their attention to unacceptability of such pronouncements - failed to respond to, or denounce, the statement of their members in Karelia.

In November, a scandal broke out involving Alexei Navalny, a leader of the Yabloko Party Moscow branch who reportedly attended a meeting of the Russian March organizing committee as an observer. While there is nothing wrong with «observing» any phenomena, Navalny also said publicly that he did not denounce any of the Russian March slogans. And while Deputy Chair of the Yabloko Party Sergey Ivanenko responded with a critical statement, his promise to «look into» the incident remained a mere declaration.

The Yabloko leadership also failed to respond to the ads Russia for [ethnic] Russians! and For Democracy! For the Power of [ethnic] Russians! posted by Vladimir Abrosimov, their regional party leader in Krasnoyarsk, on an office building in the city.

Admittedly, the argument about the extent and forms of patriotic and nationalist slogans (with the boundaries between them often unclear) acceptable to liberals is far from new. But the Russian March brought these debates to the foreground. In particular, there was an ambivalent re-action to the fact that SPS leader Nikita Belykh finished his address to the anti-fascist meeting on 4 November with words Long Live Russia!

Equally debatable and relevant in the context of increasingly active nationalism is a question about boundaries and principles concerning relationships with nationalists of various types. This question was actively discussed following A. Belov’s participation in political debates organized by the Democratic Alternative and chaired by the mentioned A. Navalny.

Nonetheless, on 20 November, a round table on Civil Society and Protection of Russian People’s Rights held in the Realists Club attracted leading representatives of democratic forces, such as Alexander Auzan and Georgy Satarov, who came to mingle with right-wing radicals rang-ing from Dmitry Rogozin to Andrei Savelyev and Alexander Belov. UCF leader Garry Kasparov sent a welcome letter to the participants of the roundtable, while other public figures, such as Lyudmila Alexeyeva, third co-chair of the Other Russia and the All-Russian Civil Congress, re-fused to attend a meeting with Rogozin.