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Moscow marches provoke selective official response

First, more than 1,000 nationalists marched openly down Moscow's central thoroughfare on Nov. 4, some handing out racist fliers. Then, about three weeks later, the police broke up a counter protest on the same street and detained some of the organizers of what was called an "anti-fascist" response to the original rally.

The latest in the series of dueling rallies over growing anti-immigrant sentiment in Moscow occured on Sunday looping through several backstreets in the Russian capital.

The marches have touched on a simmering issue of rising hate and crimes against foreigners, particularly migrant workers from other parts of the old Soviet Union. The marches also raised a question of who has the right to assemble in President Vladimir Putin's Russia.

Sunday's march, amid freezing weather and heavy snow, drew more than a thousand people and was the largest street protest by opposition groups since June, a testament to how rare such public displays have become. A coalition of liberal political parties and human rights groups organized the rally.

"It was a success, especially because it was so cold," Masha Gaidara, daughter of former Prime Minister Yegor Gaidar, and leader of a liberal youth group, said.

Walking through a thick layer of slush on the streets, the crowd followed a banner reading "Russia without Fascism." Participants waved Russian flags that snapped in an icy wind, and chanted "Fascism Will Not Pass!"

Some strayed into other issues during the march and rally, which lasted about an hour and a half. One woman carried a sign saying, "Stop the Chechen War."

As Russia's economy picks up, demand for labor, particularly in the booming construction market, is drawing workers from former Soviet Republics. Most come from Ukraine and Kazakhstan. The growing anti-immigrant movement is partly a response to this variant of a wider European issue.

Yet the rise of youth hate groups is also entangled in Russian politics, say some opposition politicians, who see an official policy of allowing anti-immigrant youth groups to flourish while tamping down other movements, particularly pro-Western democrats.

The Moscow mayor's office granted nationalists and communist groups a permit to march on Tverskaya Street Nov. 4 but declined a similar permit for the anti-fascist march Nov. 27, which led to the police crackdown. Authorities cited traffic concerns.

Gary Kasparov, the chess grandmaster who is now involved in opposition politics, suggested in a speech on Sunday that Kremlin political strategists would rather face nationalist than democratic opposition in parliamentary elections next year, and are shaping the field accordingly.

"They want us to believe the next election will decide only between fascists and chekists," or the secret police, a reference to Putin's past as a KGB officer, Kasparov said.

Dozens of foreign students have been beaten up. A rock musician was killed in St. Petersburg in November after he was threatened by skinheads.

In one particularly brazen sign of anti-immigrant sentiment, this one drawing an official response, a nationalist party, Rodina, was banned from City Council elections in Moscow for broadcasting a television advertisement.

The ad showed Central Asian men squatting on a roadside leering at a blond Russian woman pushing a baby carriage. They throw a watermelon rind on the ground.

The tag line followed: "Isn't it time to clean up Moscow's streets?"
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