Gosha Makarov is a teenager in Russia's second city of Saint Petersburg who shaves his head, wears heavy boots and abides by a simple motto -- "Russia for Russians."
The 16-year-old belongs to a skinhead gang in the city where racist attacks have increased during the past several years, prompting soul-searching in the former imperial capital that considers itself the country's liberal intellectual center.
In the latest attack, a 9-year-old girl from Tajikistan was stabbed to death in the center of the city last week as she walked home with her father and an 11-year-old cousin. The police have blamed the incident on skinheads.
"The blacks," as people from the former Soviet republics in the Caucasus and Central Asia are derisively called in Russia, are most often the target of skinheads like Makarov.
"It is ridiculous to believe that all people are brothers. Look, they act like Russia is their home," he spat out, pointing to a group of people from the Caucasus chatting outside a metro station.
In a chilling statistic, in a poll following the murder of the Tajik girl, 20 percent of respondents said they "understood" the attack.
"Naturally people said they were `shocked' and `outraged' by this crime, but they also were tolerant toward skinhead ideas," said Roman Mogilevsky, director of the Social Research Agency that conducted the poll.
"The situation is very serious, Saint Petersburgers like most Russians are not immune to racism and nationalism," Mogilevsky said.
"The society does not really put up a front against nationalist and racist ideas in Saint Petersburg, where such crimes are commonplace," he said.
Indeed last week's attack was only the latest such incident in the city.
In May, a group of German children of Turkish origin were attacked and molested by young Russians.
In March last year, a Sri Lankan student and an Indian national were beaten up in similar circumstances.
In September 2002, an Azerbaijani vendor was clubbed to death by skinheads who filmed the attack.
According to interior ministry figures, there are up to 20,000 skinheads in Russia today, who are particularly active in large cities, with some 5,000 in Moscow and 3,000 in Saint Petersburg.
Police say they face difficulties preventing crimes by the groups because of their decentralized nature.
"Saint Petersburg's skinheads don't have a centralized organization. Small groups spring up and dissolve very quickly," said Alexander, an official in the Saint Petersburg police department for fighting extremist groups.
"Most skinheads come from families with modest incomes. They are looking for scapegoats and think to carve themselves out a place under the sun in this way," said Alexander, who asked that his surname not be used.
"Police have a hard time preventing their actions because often enough they themselves do not know what they will do in five minutes," he said.
An exception, he said, was the Schultz-88 skinhead group that launched raids against ethnic Caucasians for three years and was well organized but fell apart with the arrest of its leader Dmitry Bobrov in 2002.
"Open your eyes, if the blacks kill you tomorrow, there will be no one to avenge you except the skins. They must know this," Makarov said.
‘IN A DIFFERENT PLACE’: The envoy first visited Shanghai, where he attended a Chinese basketball playoff match, and is to meet top officials in Beijing tomorrow US Secretary of State Antony Blinken yesterday arrived in China on his second visit in a year as the US ramps up pressure on its rival over its support for Russia while also seeking to manage tensions with Beijing. The US diplomat tomorrow is to meet China’s top brass in Beijing, where he is also expected to plead for restraint as Taiwan inaugurates president-elect William Lai (賴清德), and to raise US concerns on Chinese trade practices. However, Blinken is also seeking to stabilize ties, with tensions between the world’s two largest economies easing since his previous visit in June last year. At the
Nearly half of China’s major cities are suffering “moderate to severe” levels of subsidence, putting millions of people at risk of flooding, especially as sea levels rise, according to a study of nationwide satellite data released yesterday. The authors of the paper, published by the journal Science, found that 45 percent of China’s urban land was sinking faster than 3mm per year, with 16 percent at more than 10mm per year, driven not only by declining water tables, but also the sheer weight of the built environment. With China’s urban population already in excess of 900 million people, “even a small portion
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese