On the eve of this year’s Day of National Unity, on November 4, ethnic Russians and migrant workers clashed in a Moscow neighborhood, leading to a media circus in which Margarita Simonyan of RT denounced “persons of Caucasus nationality” for attacking Russians. Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov condemned her for using that highly offensive term and for ignoring the fact that all those involved were Russian citizens. The Kremlin later argued that, in reality, the violence had nothing to do with ethnic differences (Novaya Gazeta, Daily Storm, November 6; Moskovsky Komsomolets, November 7; Komsomolskaya Pravda, November 8). President Vladimir Putin’s regime quickly orchestrated a rapprochement between Simonyan and Kadyrov and threw a blanket of silence over the events, leading many to conclude that the situation was a one-off event and not part of a more serious trend. But there are compelling reasons to think that any such conclusion is wrong.
Ethnic Russians in Moscow Forming Self-Defense Units Against Non-Russian Migrants – Jamestown
