President Vladimir Putin’s failure to halt a lethal terror attack by Tajik militants in Moscow last month has had some crushing side effects for Russia’s immigrants and ethnic minorities.
While the Kremlin has internationally pinned the blame on Ukraine, the U.S. and Britain for the terror attack, domestically it has found more vulnerable scapegoats, intensifying a crackdown on migrants, central Asians and non-white Russians.
The diversity and strength of our common homeland — Russia — have been and still are in the mutual enrichment of cultures, traditions, and religions,” he said in 2015 at the opening ceremony of the Moscow Cathedral Mosque.
This statement, which starkly contradicts figures provided by the Russian interior ministry, is illustrative of a campaign against migrants launched by law enforcement following the Crocus attack.
“We can’t say anything about mass sentiment because it’s not measured that quickly,” Alexander Verkhovsky, head of the Sova Research Center, which monitors nationalism and xenophobia in Russia, told POLITICO.
“In the first days of shock [after the Crocus attack] there were indeed more appeals than usual, and they were related not only to requests for psychological help but also for consultations with a lawyer on what the risks are and whether people should leave Russia,” she said.
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