AUTO-RUSSOPHOBIA.
Latvian nationalists are trying out the new ways of hunting the
Russians
Scandal around the publication of car list — whose owners
decorated their vehicles with the Russian state symbols and St. George
ribbons — went up to the point when the Latvian law enforcement
agencies, like it or not, had to react, having filed
a criminal cases. Still, there were some stipulations on the part
of authorities: so Kristīne Apse-Krūmiņa — press-secretary
of the Security Police — stated that the "All for Latvia" movement
website represents "some sort of the opinion expressed
in a peculiar way".
Scandal around the publication of car list — whose owners
decorated their vehicles with the Russian state symbols and St. George
ribbons — went up to the point when the Latvian law enforcement
agencies, like it or not, had to react, having filed
a criminal cases. Still, there were some stipulations on the part
of authorities: so Kristīne Apse-Krūmiņa — press-secretary
of the Security Police — stated that the "All for Latvia" movement
website represents "some sort of the opinion expressed
in a peculiar way".
So what does this peculiar opinion consist of, according to the
top official’s opinion? Perhaps, in the fact that the Latvian extremists
called for their compatriots to force these "impudent aliens to get
back to their lousy Russia". In order to ease this goal
Russophobes have published all the personal information of the disliked
drivers in the Internet — their names, personal numbers, residence
addresses, car state numbers and the photos of the automobiles.
Mind that the recommendations to take pictures of the peculiar cars
emerged during the last-year V-Day celebration (when several million
of the St. George ribbons were spread all over the world, among those who
honored the great deed of the fascism winners) — i. e. another
anti-Russian campaign has been carried out in the Baltic state for year
and just now it is starting to be discussed by the
general public. Nationalists’ action was dubbed "Revealing the fifth column".
According to its organizers, the "fifth column" are all the citizens
"disloyal" to the Latvian Republic. It turned out that everyone who
was somehow connected to Russia and didn’t hide this fact, as well
as those who respected the holiday of the 9th of May, were
claimed to be disloyal to Latvia.
For the general public the main discussion subject — concerning the
scandalous actions of the Latvian extremists — was the obvious
violation of the laws. Such detailed information regarding 118 car
owner — that were legally prohibited to be published —
could have been obtained from the state institutions like police or the
administration of the transport security. Thus, the matter
of corruption inside of the top authority institutions was raised
because of the non-controlled Russophobia of the Latvian radicals.
Police — despite its common habit to close their eyes to the
oppression of the "non-citizens" — had to accept the claims from
those, whose names and cars were included into the so-called "occupational
vehicle fleet", because disclosure of the personal taxpayer’s number and
other personal information is a criminal offence.
However, there’s, apparently, one more component of the legally defined
crime — fomentation of the international hatred — that
authorities categorically deny. Meanwhile, mottos of the Nazi followers
have already produced its results: wind glasses of these cars are being
broken, tires are pierced. The same Security Police aide, Kristīne
Apse-Krūmiņa, answered the human rights advocates, who were apprehended
by such facts: "Latvian citizens who have placed Russian symbolic —
banners, for example — at their vehicles are receiving the reciprocal
reaction of certain people and organizations, some sort of expression
of the opposite opinion, including the radical one". In other words,
blame yourself and get what you deserve.
But still the security bodies ordered to block the Internet sites
containing the information of the car owners. Mind that one of the
sites that called for reprisal over Russians was registered in the USA.
At the same time one of the owners of another nationalist
web-site, Leonard Inkin, became famous for selling the Hitler’s "Mein Kampf"
book translated to Latvian over the Internet.
Latvian political scientist Sergey Malahovsky — chief editor of the
informational portal Ves. lv — has told during the interview to the
Internet-edition "Century" that recently the tendency of the social
radicalization began to show in the country: "The economic crisis
that Latvia sank into and that severely struck the society, attracts additional
members to the ranks of the national-radicals — first
of all from the poorly-educated youth that is hardly aware even
of their own national history". According to Malahovsky, every year
on the 16th of March — on the day of the Waffen-SS
legionaries march — it’s getting more and more of the young
participants of this event that disgraces Latvia in front of the
whole world. And they are already far more numerous than their elderly
mentors.
As the Russian-speaking bloggers from Latvia indicate, despite the fact
that the criminal lawsuit was filed in this case, there is still the
double-standards policy in the courts and the law enforcement agencies:
"If we’re talking about the national-grounded offences that the Latvian
nationalists go through — the reaction of the law enforcement
agencies is rapid. They immediately find the offenders and institute the
criminal proceedings against them. But when there are claims about Russophobic
or anti-Semitic escapades of the nationalists themselves —
law-enforcement and the legal institutions are doing their best to help
them escape the punishment".
For example, representatives of the ultra-right Latvian party "Latvian
National Front" constantly address the non-Latvian residents of the
country in their press media and public speeches, demanding them
to "voluntarily get out of the country", "understand that it’s Latvia
but not Russia here" and "stop torturing themselves and their surrounding
by their un-acceptance of the Latvian reality". However, the security
officers see no signs of fomentation of the international hatred
in these words.
"Last year notorious parliamentarian Juris Dobelis — representative
of the nationalistic ‘To the Motherland and Freedom’ party, LNIM (Latvian
National Independence Movement) — has shouted "Death to the
occupants" during one of the parliamentary sessions, having addressed
to one of the Russian-speaking deputies" — say the bloggers.
Then there was a scandal and the claim was sent to the police
according to the fact of fomentation of the international
hatred — police, however, failed to find the fomentation’
signs.
Authors of the online-diaries refer to the examples when just the
fiercest displays of contemporary fascism were legally punished
in Latvia: "So, young nationally-preoccupied idiot who publicly called to
‘repeat the Holocaust’ got a real imprisonment term... However,
it required the interference of some Latvian parliamentarians and
international Jewish organizations in order to do that".
"Another far-too-emotional Nazi called to ‘burn all the Russians alive’
in his comment in the Internet last year" — say the Live Journal
users. That’s how this miserable loser reacted to the election
of Nils Ušakovs to be the Riga mayor. And yet again,
it took the international response in order to put him
on trial for that comment. Now he’s paying with the provisional term for
his emotions."
"Posting the personal information at the free access web-sites on the
national lines is the fomentation of the international hatred" —
argue the Latvian bloggers. If the Security Police thinks that there’s
nothing harmful in that — this is a very bad sign.
In Germany and Poland in the end of 30s the locals also didn’t
consider the yellow David stars and ghettos to be something bad. And
if someone would start to stitch the stripes at the coats
of the Russian-speaking citizens (if, God forbid, the tide of such
sentiments would ever start; and in certain circumstances it wouldn’t
be too difficult to light that match even if it seems
to be nearly impossible now), nobody will examine whether you’ve
hanged the flag to your car or not".
However, any action has the counter-action — and the counter-action was
positive this time. Activists of the
"Nashi1" movement have already started
to distribute the St. George ribbons in Latvia — all in all
they plan to hand out about 65 thousand of them. Spectators say
that this year (comparing to the previous one) their popularity
is in the upswing — that means that Hitler’s henchmen will
unable to seriously intimidate anybody. Quite the contrary — the
nationalistic idea of the "occupational vehicle fleet" caused the will
to show that all the citizens have the right to openly express their
opinion (absolutely not offending the feelings of the state where they
live) and honor their history. Latvian anti-fascist committee is going
to carry out the most massive and immense celebration of the victory
anniversary of the last few years in 2010.
By Maxim Nemov
1 Russian Youth
Democratic Anti-Fascist Movement
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