ON POLISH AND RUSSIAN ROWDIES

Xenophobia and nationalism are widely spread in quite a number of states. This issue has become especially prominent over the past few days in the context of the dramatic events in Warsaw.

An independence march took place in Warsaw on 11 November. It is traditionally organised by nationalist organizations to mark Poland's Independence Day. The country was marking its 95th independence anniversary, so the marchers decided to celebrate the day in a big way and attacked the embassy of the Russian Federation. The marchers set ablaze a guard box at the gate of the diplomatic office and pelted the embassy grounds with flares, firecrackers and bottles.

Apparently the Polish authorities themselves were shocked at what had happened. The Polish president offered Russia apologies "on behalf of the Polish state" and described the nationalist pogrom around the Russian embassy as an "absolute scandal that cannot be justified in any way". He expressed regret that the independence march damaged Poland's image on the international scene so badly. The Polish Foreign Ministry has also censured the nationalist hooligans' actions. Meanwhile Polish Ambas-sador to Moscow Wojciech Za-jaczszkowski was summoned to the Russian Foreign Ministry where a resolute protest was voiced over the assault on the Russian embassy Warsaw. The Polish envoy's attention was drawn to the "passive and belated nature of police actions which is largely to blame for making possible the unruly rowdies' affray".

There is no doubt that attacks on foreign diplomatic offices like that in Warsaw deserve all-out censure. Neither is there any justification for evil deeds committed by nationalists of any origin. Yet the Russian Foreign Ministry's indignation at the "unruly rowdies" unintentionally brought to mind nationalists in Russia itself, those holding "Russian marches" and "Airborne Troops Days" in Russian towns streets terrifying not only foreign but also Russian citizens. Those people do not attack foreign diplomatic missions so far but they maim and quite often kill foreigners arriving in Russia in search of a living. 

Apropos, the Russian authorities not only fail to apologize for crimes committed by Russian nationalists but sometimes even see no wrong with them pleading the social nature of those thugs' actions. Meanwhile such offences have become so frequent in Russia that they are taken by a large part of Russian society as a matter of course and something natural. At the same time Russian media sow horror and fear of people from the Caucasus and Central Asia in Russians quite frequently justifying evil doings by homegrown nationalists.

One can certainly admit that some power circles in Russia are interested in nationalists committing criminal actions in order to implant the idea in the people that the country needs to be ruled by a "heavy hand". It is also obvious that some circles are trying to play on the nationalists' ground in order to win over the electorate among other reasons. Yet this cannot change the essence of the problem. Those who connive at nationalism and xenophobia willingly or unwillingly contribute, on the one hand, to splitting Russian society along ethnic or religious lines and, on the other hand, to Russia developing a negative image of itself on the international scene and estrangement of countries and people having historical gravitation towards Russia and the civilization it created.

A graphic example of the Russian authorities' behaviour is their response to a domestic murder in Moscow of which Orxan Zeynalov from Azerbaijan is accused. The authorities did practically nothing to oppose the actions by Russian nationalists who, as if encouraged by the murder of a Slav by a person of Caucasus origin, staged mass protests which grew into pogroms and murders of one Uzbek and one Azeri named Ruslan Qaraxanli. The cruel beating of a disabled teenager of Azeri ethnicity by a Russian rowdy is also one of such crimes.

More than that, the Russian authorities even played up to the rowdies. Just take the cheap show of Zeynalov's detention. Like a leader of a big crime cartel or an international terrorist organization he was honoured with a "reception" by Russian Interior Minister Vladimir Kolokoltsev in person although he was only charged with a domestic crime.

Stories of this kind testify that Russian nationalists are turning into a real political force in the Russian Federation. This can have very sad consequences above all for Russia itself as a multiethnic and multidenominational state. At the same time the growing influence of the nationalists, in essence Nazis, in Russia in no way tallies with the Kremlin-promoted projects for integration on the post-Soviet Eurasian space because any big integration project can be carried out only in case its promoter itself is a model of interethnic concord and unity. 

Thus doubt has been cast on Russia's validity as a strong centre of gravitation on the post-Soviet Eurasian space. Against the background of growing nationalist extremism in Russia itself, calls to stop violent rowdies in other countries like the Polish nationalists, sound unconvincingly. References to historical memory do not work in such situations either. Indeed, the Soviet Union and all its peoples, first and foremost the Russian people, played a decisive role in the victory over Nazism and liberation of many European countries including Poland from the Hitlerite yoke. Yet the trouble of today's Russia is that this great power which defeated Nazism is increasingly turning into a country where Nazism is gaining the upper hand. So the Russian political and intellectual elite have a good reason to think seriously about the future of nationalism and not only in the context of the recent events in Poland but also in Russia itself.