Firstnews, 22.10.2013

Nationalistic forces were eager to catch fish in muddy water and feather nest by actively using the situation in Biryulyovo, Moscow, however, they did not find support from the local population of the area. The residents of the Biryulyovo district did not join them.

The Human Rights Council (HRC) under the President expressed doubt that the reason for the events in the West Biryulyovo district, Moscow, lied in inter-ethnic strife. Human rights activists who observed the conflict from the very beginning lay blame for the anti-immigrant riots on the law enforcement and some political forces rather than migrants or residents of the area.

Andrei Babushkin, HRC member, Chairman of the Committee “For the Civil Rights” and member of the Bureau of the YABLOKO party, led a team of observers from the HRC in Biryulyovo. In his view, the protest was organised “on order”.

FN: How strong was the nationalistic element in the Biryulyovo conflict?

Andrei Babushkin: When we talked to the local residents, they first spoke about the inaction of the police and only then about migrants. These issues turned out to be inextricably intertwined. So, local residents did not blame all the migrant workers. They were dissatisfied only with those of them who committed offenses. But the residents of the area cited numerous cases when the police simply did not come out on a call.

Also, when we came to Biryulyovo, it was right after the beginning of the insurgence, we saw that there were two groups of protesters. One was located by the Biryulyovo-Tovarnaya station and another one near the Biryuza shopping center. The first group consisted of young men who were standing in front of television cameras shouting slogans like “Russia for Russians” and “Moscow for Muscovites”. There were about 40 such people at most. This means that only one tenth out of total four hundred protesters in Biryulyovo chanted extreme right wing slogans and smashed cars.

When we talked to those nationalistic guys, and it turned out that they were not the locals.

FN: But local residents joined them in the course of the protest, did not they?

Andrei Babushkin: The nationalistic forces were eager to catch fish in muddy water and feather nest by actively using the situation in Biryulyovo, Moscow, however, they did not find support from the local population of the area. The residents of the Biryulyovo district did not join them. Initially they went to Biryulyovo trading centre together with the nationalists, but then realized that they were used in other people’s games and showed civil responsibility.

There is another important point there – whether mass-scale insurgences did take place there or not. I can state that the events in Biryulyovo did not reach the degree of a riot. They can be qualified as hooliganism, vandalism, or hooliganism for inciting ethnic hatred. Certainly, there was a danger of mass-scale pogroms, but the police prevented them.

FN: Who profits from the crisis in Biryulyovo?

Andrei Babushkin: Yesterday’s monitoring showed that prices on fruit and vegetables in Moscow shops rose from 20 to 50 per cent. This is a terrible blow to Moscow households. We have observed an unprecedented attempt to monopolize the sales of fruits and vegetables. There is no doubt that the people who organised the pogroms and those who ordered closing of the wholesale shopping centre received money from the same source. I think there is a very strong economic interest of those who would like to damage the reputation of the country on the eve of the Winter Olympics in Sochi.

The original publication