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Discussing the Problem of Racism in the Kabardino-Balkaria Human Rights Center

In the Kabardino-Balkaria human rights center a round-table conference took place in which the problem of xenophobia was discussed. Denga Khalidov, a member-correspondent from the Russian Academy of Geopolitical Sciences took part in the work at the round-table.

At the opening session of the round-table, the director of the Kabardino-Balkaria human rights center Valery Khatazhukov said, that conversation focused on issues of the diaspora in Moscow and other Russian megalopolises.

He said that measures are being taken by directors of the republics to draw investment and creating new work places, but this cannot be done in one day, and therefore population drain continues to take place. Moving to a bigger city, people from the Kabardino-Balkarian Republic encounter other problems, including those linked with xenophobia.

�We are not intending to put a lot of emphasis on exactly this problem, instead we want to put the question in perspective�, said Valery Khatazhukov. He further underlined that in Moscow there are representatives of Kabardino-Balkaria that, in his opinion, should look after defending the interests of those leaving the republic.

Denga Khalidov, native of the Dagestan Republic, studies these issues objectively; both theoretically and practically, underlined Khatazhukov, giving the guest a chance to speak. Denga Khalidov related that the older Russian generation possesses an interethnic conscience. Few people connect this understanding with a need to preserve one�s self, but in this case Russian patriotism is not alien to them.

Russia is an enormous country made up of many people. Such a state cannot be founded upon narrow nationalism and only one orthodox consciousness. Some people consider such arguments to be adequate. Meanwhile in Russia today there is an entire generation of people who grew up in a specific environment, where too much emphasis was placed on one�s ethnic origin. As a result, xenophobia and ultra-nationalism acquired such forms that descendents from the Caucasus are seen as enemies.

Things have a reached such a state that if somewhere in Moscow a group of people from the Caucasus decide to dance the lezginka, then a group of skinheads will gather and throw bottles at them and shout �chocks, get out of Russia�.

The Russian Congress of Caucasian People (RKNK) is a movement founded by people from the North Caucasus. The organization is occupied with the issues of descendants from the Caucasus who encounter administrative despotism or become victims of violence.

Denga Khalidov states that approximately one hundred Dagestanian descendants were victims of unprovoked violence. He also noted that a lack of understanding takes place even at the level of law-enforcement agencies which are also infected with the virus of nationalism.

�I would be biased if I didn�t describe the other side of the problem that sometimes our compatriots don�t always behave in a manner fitting to the Russian sphere, and allow for unbecoming behavior. They do not break the law, but it is received as a call, as insolent behavior�.

Khalidov went on to say that surveys conducted by RKNK showed that mass perception in Russia does not distinguish between peoples from the Caucasus. People don�t make a distinction between descendents from the Northern Caucasus and those from Trans-Caucasia, to say nothing of differentiating between Chechens and Dagestanis, or Ossetians and Adyghe- �everyone looks the same�. All are characterized by not the best characteristics, educational, cultural�

Analysis on the cause of this conflict, further notes Denga Khalidov, shows that Caucasians judge Russian people not from the best, but from those they meet in underground crossings at night. Radicals from both sides make up this alienation and our calls hang in the air.�

Khalidov advises that together with press-service of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation a scientific-practical conference is planned to be carried out on the theme �Ultra-nationalism, xenophobia and the role of mass-media�.

Further discussion touched on the problem of xenophobia in mass-media. Khalidov held that the RKNK has written letters to the State Office of Public Prosecutor, the Federal Security Bureau and the Federal Communications Agency for Cultural Preservation with a serious analysis of how mass-media propagandizes xenophobic moods, as well as an analysis of what results follow for Russia. And the problem is so serious, that it should be included in the national agenda. The issue is, as was noticed by the academician, that ultranationalists sit both in the State Duma, and at other levels of authority.

"Anti-Caucasian and anti-Islamic propaganda occurs in tens of artistic films, they disgrace the central television channels, a number of popular newspapers feeding from powerful government corporations.

The rector of the North-Caucasian Institute of Business, Professor Felix Kharaev, noted in his appearance that together with this problem it is necessary to mention what occurs in the national republics regarding the draining of the Russian-language population.

"I turned to the leadership of the Republic with a proposal to isolate enrollment quotas for academic institutions for Russian-language speakers so they would not leave�.

Muazin Khachetlov contested that it is not only the Russians that are left alone in Kabardino-Balkaria who are leaving, but native people as well, �in search of earnings�.

The advisor to the President of Kabardino-Balkaria, Boris Kumyk, reported that with the representation of the republic in Moscow a telephone �hot line� was opened, whose number is 8495 - 911 - 18- 52. Participants in the round table reached the general conclusion that national policy in Russia should be returned to its proper place. An ideology which would unite the country is necessary. At the basis of this ideology must be the installation of Russia as a union of peoples.



Source: : Center "����"

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