In a street near Novosibirsk, Siberia, a group of uniformed men, at least one of whom is masked, approach two watermelon sellers. The men are dressed in black, wearing tactical vests with patches bearing the emblem of a bogatyr – a mythic warrior of Slavic folklore – riding on horseback.
They inform the traders, who they believe to be foreigners, that they are carrying out illegal trade, and the security forces load their goods into a van to be seize by the authorities.
These black men, however, are not authorized to work for law enforcement.
A video of this operation was uploaded online on Monday morning by the Russian Community, or Russkaya Obshchina (RO), who boasted of shutting down an “oriental bazaar”.
With 1.2 million subscribers to its official YouTube channel, over 660, 000 subscribers to its main Telegram channel, as well as its own app, and support from powerful allies within the clergy and security services, the RO has grown to be Russia’s largest and most powerful ultranationalist organization.
Alexander Verkhovsky, the director of the SOVA Centre, which tracks hate movements in Russia, calls this a classic movement of Russian ethnic nationalists.
“There used to be]the slogan] ‘ Russia for Russians’, but now that is considered too radical. But he claims that this is the main point.
RO also asserts that it upholds conservative moral and religious principles, and that it backs the Kremlin, even in the Ukraine invasion.
“These points define their entire ideology… There have always been nationalists, but the fact that the largest and most prominent Russian nationalist organisation is fully loyal to the government – this is an unusual situation”.
Folk music and a constant stream of anti-immigrant messages
RO was founded five years ago by Omsk politician Andrey Tkachuk, anti-abortion rights activist Yevgeny Chesnokov and Andrey Afanasyev, a host on the TV channel Spas, which is owned by the Russian Orthodox Church.
As other, tightly knit ethnic communities in Russia already look out for each other, like Chechens or Armenians, one member claimed last year to the BBC that the idea was to create solidarity among Russians themselves.
In order to facilitate community events like Maslenitsa (Butter Week), which feature folk singing and dancing performances in the lead up to Easter, many of the Community’s activities are benign.
But an examination of RO’s various Telegram groups reveals a narrow focus on ethnic Russian interests, to the exclusion of Russia’s other non-Slavic groups – although there are a handful of minority members – and a stream of anti-immigrant content.
A young female follower of the Community’s Saratov branch, who can’t be identified because of fear of repercussions, told Al Jazeera, “The blacks will devour everything in their path if the Slavs do not unite in some way defend their borders and values.”
According to observers, the group’s other activities include vigilantism, which is frequently done with the authorities’ clear or covert support.
According to Verkhovsky, there are a number of tactics to target immigrants and non-Russian minorities. One is making official complaints and denunciating what it deems to be immoral, such as homosexuality, abortion, or “Russophobic behavior.” Although neither of the former is technically prohibited in Russia, there are laws prohibiting “propaganda” related to LGBTQ and “childfree” themes.
Another tactic is raids, such as the one on watermelon sellers in Novosibirsk. These are places where migrants live or work, Verkhovsky asserts.
Members of the Russian Community or other vigilante organizations, like Northern Man, frequently appear where immigrants are employed and engage in “violation” – as in the case of the Novosibirsk watermelon stall, unlicensed trading. They then detain the alleged violators and hand them over to the police.
“Practically any citizen can complain to the Russian Community and claim that some “bad” people have offended him,” says Verkhovsky.
“Ideally, the complainant is Russian, and these “bad” people are not Russian,” the author says. And then the Russian Community will go to protect him”.
The group occasionally accompanies police as “volunteers” during joint operations, though this is uncommonr. Verkhovsky noted that different police departments have different opinions of RO, and while some may seem to welcome them, some officers have already filed charges against community members before having the case dropped by the prosecution.
Defying a “crime wave”
The vigilantes assert that there is a “wave of immigrant crime.”
There is crime among foreigners in Russia: For instance, Georgians make up more than half of the “thieves-in-law”, an elite fraternity in the criminal underworld. In addition to making headlines, gangs of young immigrant men frequently engage in vicious brawls and beatings.
However, these highly publicized incidents and people only account for a small portion of Russia’s overall crime rate. According to Sergei Shoigu, secretary of Russia’s Security Council, foreigners committed just 2 percent of all reported crime nationwide last year, while comprising roughly 4 percent of the population.
Additionally, Valentina Chupik, a lawyer who provides free legal services to immigrants, claimed that the majority of these crimes are related to the misuse of paperwork rather than the victimization of Russians.
“These crimes [missing paperwork] are the inevitable result of the organization of illegal migration, which are committed by homeowners who rent apartments to immigrants but do not comply with the law’s requirement to register them there,” she claims.
As well as immigrants, RO campaigns against alleged immorality and “fifth-columnists” in Russian society. Chupik is regarded as one of these fifth-columnists because he has grown used to getting threats and insults, even from RO supporters.
She claims that they regularly threaten me.
“My employees are also threatened, as well as volunteers. I occasionally appear in posts on their Telegram groups. They call me right away and then write to me.
Messages seen by Al Jazeera tell Chupik, “there’s a special spot for you in hell” and to “wait for the bottle”, alluding to sexual assault.
Al Jazeera contacted several RO representatives for comment, but they did not respond.
There has been an increase in xenophobia since ISIS-affiliated gunmen fatally attacked a Moscow music venue last year. The police have ramped up arrests and other restrictions on immigrants, especially those from Central Asia. Verkhovsky says it’s difficult to determine how much the general public views immigrants negatively, but polls show a sharp rise in immigration-related concerns.
To be accepted in the war, to support it
In the 2000s, Russia suffered a scourge of far-right-wing violence, peaking in 2008 when skinhead gangs carried out 110 racist murders nationwide. A Tajik and a Dagestani were shot dead and beheaded while filming a particularly obscene scene in a forest close to Moscow. After a third suspect, who was already imprisoned, incriminated the two men in his suicide note in 2022, two men were finally found guilty of the double homicide.
For a time, available outlets for xenophobic sentiment dried up somewhat.
Verkhovsky argued that the authorities significantly repressed this movement in the 2010s, and almost all of these organizations either stopped or were completely eradicated.
And those who wanted to participate in these ideas were either afraid or simply unable to go anywhere.
Some far-right activists moved to Ukraine, where they found common cause with like-minded locals.
RO is a relatively recent development. It forgoes the old-fashioned thuggery and prefers to work alongside the authorities. And its brand of nationalism aligns with the Kremlin, supporting the invasion of Ukraine and actively fundraising for soldiers and their families. Andrey Tkachuk, the founder, has even professed ignorance about the country’s national identity in interviews.
Verkhovsky notes that “the state’s tolerance for any groups that support the]war has increased significantly.” “In general, the authorities don’t like any grassroots initiatives, but here they’ve quite notably tolerated it. This is only possible during a conflict.
Verkhovsky points out that many of the activists are “inclined towards violence,” and the leadership can’t always hold them back, even though the Russian Community operates largely within the confines of the law and serves as more of an unofficial auxiliary to law enforcement than the skinheads of the past, who eagerly filmed their brutal assaults.
In May, for instance, activists armed with pepper spray and a Taser allegedly burst into an apartment near St Petersburg where two men and a woman were drinking and taking illicit drugs. One of the men, who was of Armenian descent, died in the fiery argument, and the woman suffered serious injuries after jumping from a seventh-storey window.
According to reports, the activists told witnesses, “Let him burn,” claiming that the man was a “pusher.”
And last week, a mass brawl erupted between dozens of RO members and Chechen and Ingush workers on a building site northeast of Moscow, after an Ingush security guard reportedly evicted a drunk man from the premises.
The organization made it known on Sunday that the Chelyabinsk region of west-central Russia’s local authorities had labeled it an “undesirable organization” on the grounds of “extremism.”
However, RO has friends who are well-known: According to reports in the Russian media, Alexander Bastrykin, the head of Russia’s Investigative Committee, has repeatedly intervened on behalf of its members, including filing charges against police officers who detained them on various charges. And, in June, sources within the security services told reporters from the independent Russian news site, Meduza, that they use RO as a tool for managing “interethnic conflicts”.
A vicar sacraments the savior.
The Orthodox Church’s influence is another distinguishing factor from the old, racist gangs. The group has campaigned against mosques, requires its members to profess Orthodoxy, and has been blessed by a vicar on behalf of Patriarch Kirill, the head of the Russian Orthodox Church, himself.
Verkhovsky claims that “the Russian Community and other organizations of the same type have a very positive relationship with the Russian Orthodox Church.”
Source: Aljazeera
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