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Ethnic Tensions in the Russian Federation

Ethnic Tensions in the Russian Federation. Russian Federation. 21 autonomous republics 51 regions (in which 49 “oblast” and 2 urban areas of “federal significance”: St. Petersburg and Moscow); 10 national districts; 6 territories named “ krai ”;

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Ethnic Tensions in the Russian Federation

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  1. Ethnic Tensions in the Russian Federation

  2. Russian Federation • 21 autonomous republics • 51 regions (in which 49 “oblast” and 2 urban areas of “federal significance”: St. Petersburg and Moscow); • 10 national districts; • 6 territories named “krai”; • an autonomous region Birobidjanlocated in the far East, meant to be a Jewish homeland.

  3. Russia’s population: 141,950,000 • 25 million of Russia’s citizens are ethnic minorities • Over 100 different nationalities. • Ten Major Minorities inhabitants (millions): • Tatar 5.5 • Ukrainians 4 • Chuvashia 1.7 • Bashkir 1.3 • Belarusian 1.5 • Mordovian 1 • Chechens 0.9 • Udmurt 0.7 • Kossacs 0.6 • Germans 0.5

  4. What has aggravated inter-ethnic tensions? • Soviet propaganda heavily relied on ethnic Chauvinism. • re-writing of historical figures. • Homogenize ethnic territory • Russification of non-Russian nationalities • Soviet passports, as well as all other identifying documents, specified the holder’s nationality. • During Stalin’s rule, the majority of prisoners were accused of nationalism.

  5. Ethnic Tensions in the North Caucasus • 20 million people, representing 70 different ethnic groups. • Predominantly Islamic , • Long history of violent conflict since the days of the Tsars. • Stalin deported 200,000 ethnic Chechens (quarter of Chechnya’s population then), the remainder of the population was persecuted • Consciousness of a separate history and culture is widely spread among North Caucasian people. • Human rights record remains poor in the region • There is also an increase in Muslim Extremism, Wahhabism

  6. Ethno-nationalist mobilization is most likely to be successful: • When political, economic and cultural demands are aggregated in a fundamentalist ideology, • When the political regime systematically discriminates against non-dominant groups, • When group cohesion is high, and when resources may be mobilized for nationalism

  7. Medvedev’s plan to calm the North Caucasus involves: • Investing heavily in the region • Moving some of its population to predominantly ethnic Russian regions Some Russian experts believe: • This will generate xenophobia among Russians • Will also generate demands by other non-Russians ethnic minorities for the same of treatment

  8. Immigration in the Russian federation Between 1992-2002 Russia lost about 6.6 million citizens since deaths exceeded births. By 2009, it gained 10 million immigrants

  9. Immigrants are necessary: • Internal reasons: reduction in population, and need for labor. • External reason: China’s over population • President Medvedev proclaimed that Russia should be a country where people should want to come to from all over the world • Immigration rules have been simplified to improve visa regulations

  10. Migrant Workers • According to approximate estimations, there are 9 illegal migrants per 1 legal labor migrant in the country. • Half of all foreign migrants arrive from Central Asia (1.6 million, 1989-2003), particularly the republics of Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan. Others come from Ukraine, Azerbaijan, Armenia and Moldova. • There are an estimated 5 million Chinese nationals living in Russia’s Far East.

  11. Chinese Migrant Workers: • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8nyU3A3qHfs

  12. Should people of the following nationalities be restricted from living in Russia? From the Levada Institute http://www.levada.ru/press/2006082500.html

  13. Is there Russian Fascism, and if so, has it grown in recent years? From the Levada Institute http://www.levada.ru/press/2006082500.html

  14. A 2009 survey: 45% of the respondents felt hostile toward non-Slavic ethnic groups, particularly those from the Caucasus (i.e. Azerbaijanis, Armenians, Georgians, Dagestanis) and Central Asia. • A survey conducted in 2008: 55% of respondents favored a toughening of immigration regulations. • 400 hate crimes motivated by an ethnic bias and directed against people of "non-Slavic" appearance were committed in 2009 in Russia. A great number of these crimes were committed by members of anti-immigration groups.

  15. What does the future hold? Immigration is necessary for Russia’s development and Russian government is trying to ease ethnic tensions So far the government has: • Decided to teach expats “rules of the game”, a code of conduct to give suggestions how to ease ethnic divides http://rt.com/news/prime-time/guidelines-expats-moscow-authorities/ • Moscow authorities decided to create a map of ethnic tensions sites http://en.rian.ru/russia/20100322/158275719.html

  16. Russian Xenophobia • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S8zKfluSsuE&feature=related

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