The amount of ethnically motivated violence dropped in Russia last year, while convictions in xenophobic attack cases increased, according to a report unveiled on Monday by the Moscow Bureau of Human Rights.
In 2013, 25 people were killed and at least 180 more were injured in incidents of nationalist aggression against perceived foreigners, Alexander Brod, the bureau’s director, said at a press conference.
Moscow is a leader by number of ethnically motivated crimes, followed by St. Petersburg and the southern cities of Krasnodar and Voronezh, the report said.
At the same time, police crackdowns on ethnically motivated attacks increased, Brod said, with 54 people in 32 Russian regions convicted of hate crimes.
The human rights experts who took part in the press conference agreed that the Russian government had yet to implement forceful legislation to address the country’s ongoing problems with migration.
National policy “still carries an on-paper, official character, not properly embodied in regional programs,” Brod said. “Almost nothing has been done to educate people and promote a culture of interethnic dialogue and social advertising.”
Migration has been convinced to be one of the most problem questions for Russia in recent years, with nationalist tension rising alongside a massive influx of labor migrants, many from the former Soviet republics of Central Asia.
Author: Julia Alieva