Russian activists have appealed for international solidarity and protest after thugs of the neo-Nazi Russian National Unity party, armed with metal chains, burst into a school where Jewish children were taking religious lessons in the town of Ryazan, 200 kilometres south-east of Moscow, on September 17.
Though the teachers managed to get the children, aged 6-13, out in time, the fascists were able to smash up the room, which the Jewish community rents from the school for its Sunday classes. The next day the school headmistress was knocked down by a car which mounted the pavement. Two Nazi youth got out and proceeded to beat her for "having dealings with Jews".
The Jewish community has now been told it can no longer use the premises. As they cannot afford to rent a room commercially, this ends the community's ability to provide cultural education for their children.
Shortly after the attack, 30 racist youth armed with bats burst into a camp for migrant Roma workers in Yekaterinburg. Two Roma have been hospitalised with serious injuries.
Hatred of minorities in Russia has skyrocketed since the introduction of the market economy and especially since the 1998 economic collapse, as big businessmen and the political elite have sought to find a scapegoat for the crisis. The neo-Nazi RNU is allowed to operate with impunity in 11 of Russia's regions; in some, its armed thugs have been given official police powers by the regional authorities.
But it would be wrong to imagine that the RNU, which polls relatively poorly in national elections, is the only threat. Far from it.
Last year, Russian President Vladimir Putin managed to deflect the huge build-up of popular anger at living conditions and non-payment of wages by launching a ferocious war against the Chechen people. Simultaneously the nation's mass media united to foment hatred against Muslims and dark-skinned peoples in general, culminating in a campaign of mass expulsions of black people from Moscow.
Anti-semitism too is now a major recurring theme, with a spate of synagogue attacks, stabbings and bombing incidents. The leader of the Communist Party (KPRF), the largest party in the country, has publicly blamed Jews for the economic crisis.
In August Putin held talks in the Kremlin with the editor of the ultra-racist magazine Zavtra. Shortly afterwards, Zavtra published accusations that the Jews were a fifth column trying to overthrow Putin. Zavtra also invited the US Nazi David Duke (formerly of the Ku Klux Klan) to address a packed meeting at Moscow's Mayakovsky Museum, where Duke condemned "world Zionism" as the "Aryan race's main enemy" and called for the expulsion of all blacks and Jews from Moscow.
The group International Solidarity with Workers in Russia (ISWoR) has urged anti-racist organisations worldwide to send protest letters opposing the actions of the racists, to President Vladimir Putin, by email to <president@kremlin.ru>, by fax to (+7 095) 206-02-66, or by post to 103132, Moscow, Staraya Ploshad, 4, Russia.
Copies should be sent to ISWoR, Box R, 46 Denmark Hill, London SE5 8RZ Britain.
BY LISA TAYLOR