Operation "White Storm". What happened on Manege Square on December, 11?

Photo by Ilya Varlamov

          Over 1,000 Moscow right-wing soccer fans and nationalists blocked a key city artery in protest at a killing of Egor Sviridov, a “Spartak” soccer fan who was shot in a fight with a group of men from the North Caucasus, a longstanding conflict, Muslim region in southern Russia.

          Protesters stopped traffic on Leningrad Avenue for half an hour, climbing on cars, lighting flares and chanting nationalistic slogans. Protesters demanded a full inquiry into the murder of Egor Sviridov. Their protest puts new pressure on race relations in the Russian capital. Many ethnic Russians accuse the authorities of trying to play down hate crimes against Russians.

          The death of Egor Sviridov generated a wave of anger on Russian soccer supporters’ and nationalists’ websites. They also accused the authorities of failing to catch the killer of another soccer supporter, Yury Volkov, who was stabbed to death in Moscow in July, during a fight with a group of Chechens.

          Potesters were chanting "One for all, all for one" as well as nationalistic slogans such as "Russia for Russians", "Moscow for Muscovites" and “Fuck Chechnya”.  

          Aslan Cherkessov, a resident of the Kabardino-Balkaria region, was formally accused by a Moscow district court of murdering Mr. Sviridov and placed in custody until 6 February. Russian media report that three other suspects were detained along with Mr. Cherkessov but then released, and are now being sought again.

          Longstanding ill-feeling between ethnic Russians and members of the North Caucasus's numerous small ethnic groups, predominantly of Muslim faith, is one of the country's most sensitive social problems. All parties agree that death of Egor Sviridov was a catalyst that exploded the much greater conflict between the Slavs and peoples of the Caucasus.

          The story continued on Saturday, December 11. Early in the day almost 10,000, including soccer supporters of various clubs, nationalists and not indifferent Russian people came to the Vodny Stadion (Moscow Metro) station and from there proceeded to Kronshtadt Boulevard, where Egor Sviridov was killed, to lay down flowers and light candles.

          Around 15:00 the crowd of protestors started gathering near the Kremlin at the Manege Square, including nationalists and right-wing soccer fans soon becoming over 5,500 thousand strong. Official sources indicate that as many as 50,000 people could have gathered. The crowd protested against ethnic criminal, uncontrolled immigration and corrupted government. There were chants of slogans such as "Russia for Russians", “Fuck Chechnya” and “No to Jewish government” as well as more peaceful, among them “One for all and all for one” and “Your children will pay for these killings”. Moreover, the demonstrators attacked and injured a number of passers-by, who appeared to be members of ethnic minorities from the Caucasus region. 

          Riot police were sent to Manezhaya Square to deal with the unauthorised demonstration. As OMON forces tried to control the situation, some protesters tried to breach the cordon, resulting in fights between the parties. As OMON forces started dispersing the crowd, hostilities escalated, both sides sustained casualties. A total of some 65 people were arrested, and 29 hospitalized, among them 8 soldiers of OMON forces. The city's police chief even had to talk with the protesters.

          A similar event took place in St Petersburg. People started gathering on Pioneer Square and heading in the direction of Pushkinskaya Metro station. Numbering close to a 1,500, mostly nationalist and right-wing fans were trying to block the street that resulted in clashes with the OMON forces. 60 people were arrested. However, a part of the crowd was able to break through the cordon and marched on the street chanting “One for all and all for one”, "Russia for Russians" and other nationalistic slogans.

          The similar demonstrations against ethnic criminal and in memory of the death of Egor Sviridov took place in many Russian cities all over the country. In Rostov, over a 1,000 of protesters marched on the streets. Similar marches, gathering several hundreds of right –wing fans and nationalists each, took place in Perm, Kirov, Kaluga and Samara, Izhevsk, Voronezh, Tomsk, Ufa, Kaliningrad and other cities.

          But that is not the end of the story. The Russian capital was gripped by fears of rioting on Wednesday as hundreds of aggressive nationalists and right-wing fans gathered in different parts of the city to protest against immigration and ethnic criminal. Moreover, Russian media have been abuzz with rumors that some people from the Caucasus could try to take revenge for Saturday's riot.  Hundreds of baton-wielding riot police in dark helmets lined up outside Kievsky train station, which links the capital to southern regions, as authorities towed cars in anticipation of possible clashes. The area around the station is popular with traders from Russia's southern Caucasus region.

          Clashes between Russians and people of the Caucasus were reported in a square at Kievsky train station in central Moscow on Wednesday afternoon. Riot police detained dozens of youths, but failed to stop a crowd of an estimated 600 Slavic nationalists and right-wing fans from staging a march down a nearby street raising slogans against non-Slavic immigrants. Authorities closed several metro stations in the city and cordoned off the Red Square and Manege Square near the Kremlin, where thousands of Slavic youths staged violent protests on Saturday and clashed with police.

          Resentment is rising among Russians over the growing presence in Moscow and elsewhere of people from the Caucasus, the home of numerous ethnic groups, most of them Muslim. Ethnic tensions have been on the rise in Russia as millions of migrant labor from the Caucasus and former Soviet Central Asia flooded Moscow and other cities. The recent protests all over the country raised fresh doubts about the government's ability to control the rising tide of xenophobia, which threatens Russia's existence as multiethnic state.

          Now let’s try to analyze briefly what happened in Moscow two weeks ago. 

          It’s unlikely that the Ministry of Interior Affairs and the Federal Security Service hadn’t received a warning that soccer fans and nationalists were going to organize a protest action. Preparation of the protest action was carried out through popular social network services and forums in Internet, where bloggers called everybody for coming to Manege Square on December, 11. At the same time, Fratria, a large fan group of the Spartak Club had pre-dissociated itself from the rally on Manege Square. However, flags of Spartak had been there, and it means that other fan groups were presented at the rally. Also it’s clear that OMON forces cordon off all approaches to the Square (as opposed to approaches to Red Square and Alexander Garden). So, in fact OMON allowed protesters to get together on the Manege Square. It’s unlikely that there was not a special order concerning this.

          This means that authorities deliberately allowed holding the rally; therefore, they pursued their object.

          Now the fact that agent provocateurs and instigators in masks were among the protesters on December, 11 and December, 15, is established. It was they who instigated the crowd on Manege Square to chant nationalistic slogans and to throw right hands up like Nazi. They also provoked beating of natives of the Caucasus and the Central Asia. Two instigators without masks were identified by bloggers. They turned out activists of progovernmental youth movements. One can found more information about inquiry about activities of instigators and their photos in my personal Russian-lamguage blog.

          So, what could be probable aims of provocations, if instigators were affiliated with progovernmental structures?

          The first aim is to bring discredit to separated and badly organized, but potentially popular and powerful Russian national movement. So, instigators tried to make an emphasis on a primitive nationalism. According to the opinion poll conducted by the Russian Public Opinion Research Center on December, 13-18, approximately 18 percent of the population of Russia, and 37 percent of people who live in Moscow had approved activities of the protesters on Manege Square. 11 percent of people expressed their willingness to engage themselves in such actions. 

          The second aim is to tighten the screws on organizers and participants of “unauthorized” public actions and accuse them of “extremist activity”.

          The third aim is to bring discredit to the Strategy-31 – a series of protests held in Moscow on Triumph Square on the 31st of every month with 31 days. Until December, 11, these protests were rather newsworthy, but now they became a pale image of the rally on Manege Square, which had emphasized shameful smallness and absolute incapacity of the current non-systemic opposition. 

          Finally, disturbances on Manege Square became a beginning of the presidential campaign. On December, 22, Prime Minister Vladimir Putin met with leaders of the soccer fan groups and laid a wreath on the grave of Egor Sviridov. Meanwhile, President Medvedev had declared a week earlier that everybody who “fouled” on Manege Square should be prosecuted. Such difference in approach of the two senior officials to the problem makes us to come to definite conclusions about the person who could derive benefit from it.