Oppfatningen om at Russland er for russere blir stadig mer utbredt. Nynazistiske grupper opererer friere. De driver klappjakt på «tsjurki», folk fra Kaukasus, jøder og afrikanere, vel vitende om at domstolene og politiet tar lett på dem.

Bomben på et utendørsmarked i Tsjerkizovo utenfor Moskva i midten av august kan innevarsle en terrorkampanje mot «uønskede» elementer.

«There are too many Asians» here. As repugnant as that may sound, it is becoming an increasingly popular view in today’s Russia. Which is why even if the two suspects arrested are indeed guilty, they might get away with the crime. With 52% Russians supporting the slogan «Russia for Russians,» and with many increasingly sympathetic to those who attack immigrants, the courts may well be lenient. «Racist attacks happen with shocking regularity in Russia, and the government is shirking its responsibilities and failing to confront the problem,» Amnesty International said in its May 2006 report on hate crime in Russia. According to the Moscow Human Rights Bureau, racists murdered 10 people last year and 18 in the first half of this year, not incluing the ten people killed by the Cherkizovo market bomb.

Rasistene føler at de har Vladimir Putin på sin side. Stilltiende. Da Putin ved begynnelsen av den andre Tsjetsjenia-krigen sa at terroristene skulle tas med ut på bakrommet, tolket mange det som en invitt til å rydde opp.

Back in the fall of 1999, in the wake of terrorist apartment bombings in Moscow and other Russian cities, then-Premier Putin pledged «to rub out the terrorists on the john.» Neo-Nazis — along with many Russians who would genuinely feel insulted if they were called Nazis — interpreted this statement in the same way Belyayev did — as a virtual license to attack. I heard it from officers who fought in Chechnya often enough.

Inside Russia’s Racism Problem
More and more Russians believe their country is for whites only, and that’s leading to deadly violence
By YURI ZARAKHOVICH/MOSCOW