PONARS Eurasia
  • About
    • Contact
    • List of Members
  • Policy Memos
    • List of Policy Memos
  • Podcast
  • Online Academy
  • Events
    • Past Events
  • Recommended
Contacts
Address 1957 E St NW, Washington, DC 20052 adminponars@gwu.edu 202.994.5915
NEWSLETTER
Facebook
Twitter
YouTube
Podcast
PONARS Eurasia
PONARS Eurasia
  • About
    • Contact
    • List of Members
  • Policy Memos
    • List of Policy Memos
  • Podcast
  • Online Academy
  • Events
    • Past Events
  • Recommended
DIGITAL RESOURCES
digital resources

Bookstore 📚

Knowledge Hub

Course Syllabi

Point & Counterpoint

Policy Perspectives

RECOMMENDED
  • In the Caucasus, There Is a Peace Agreement but Not Peace

    View
  • Russia’s Niche Soft Power: Sources, Targets and Channels of Influence

    View
  • A Weak Link in NATO? Bulgaria, Russia, and the Lure of Espionage

    View
  • Russia’s Weak Strongman: The Perilous Bargains That Keep Putin in Power

    View
  • Special Issue: Russia’s 2020 Constitutional Reform: The Politics of Institutionalizing the Status-Quo

    View
RSS PONARS Eurasia Podcast
  • How is the Russian Government Coping with Rising Food Prices? [Lipman Series 2021] March 15, 2021
    In this week's PONARS Eurasia Podcast, Maria Lipman chats with Anton Tabakh about rising food prices in Russia, and what they might mean for Russia's current and future stability.
  • The Communist Party of the Russian Federation: More Than Just Systemic Opposition? [Lipman Series 2021] March 5, 2021
    In this week's episode of the PONARS Eurasia Podcast, Maria Lipman chats with Felix Light and Nikolay Petrov about the contemporary Communist Party of the Russian Federation, including the divisions between its leadership and membership, its attitude toward Alexei Navalny, and why it might be more than just "systemic" opposition after all.
  • Internet Resources: Civic Communication and State Surveillance [Lipman Series 2021] February 16, 2021
    In this week's PONARS Eurasia Podcast, Maria Lipman chats with Andrei Soldatov and Tanya Lokot about the role of the internet in contemporary Russian politics, including both as a tool of the Russian opposition and as an instrument of the increasingly repressive Russian regime.
  • The Rise of Alexei Navalny's Political Stature and Mass Protest in Russia [Lipman Series 2021] February 1, 2021
    In the first PONARS Eurasia Podcast of 2021, Maria Lipman chats with Greg Yudin about the current protests taking place in Russia, and what Alexei Navalny's growing popular support means for the Putin regime.
  • Russian Social Policy in the COVID-19 Era [Lipman Series 2020] December 21, 2020
    In 2020’s final episode of the PONARS Eurasia Podcast, Maria Lipman chats with Sarah Wilson Sokhey and Ella Paneyakh to discuss Russian social policy in the COVID-19 era, and public perception of Russia’s overall pandemic response.
  • Conscious Parenting Practices in Contemporary Russia [Lipman Series 2020] December 10, 2020
    In this week's episode of the PONARS Eurasia Podcast, Maria Lipman chats with Julia Yuzbasheva and Maria Danilova to learn more about the proliferation of "conscious parenting" practices in contemporary Russian society.
  • The Transformation of Belarussian Society [Lipman Series 2020] November 11, 2020
    In this episode of the PONARS Eurasia Podcast, Masha Lipman chats with Grigory Ioffe about the long-term and short-term factors that led up to the current protests in Belarus, and the ongoing transformation of Belarussian society.
  • Russian Lawmakers Adjust National Legislation to the Revised Constitutional Framework [Lipman Series 2020] October 26, 2020
    In this week’s PONARS Eurasia Podcast, Maria Lipman chats with Ben Noble and Nikolay Petrov about ongoing changes to Russia’s national legislation based on the recently revised constitutional framework, and what these changes portend for the 2021 Duma election.
  • Russia's Regional Elections [Lipman Series 2020] September 25, 2020
    In this week’s PONARS Eurasia Podcast, Maria Lipman chats with Graeme Robertson and Konstantin Gaaze about Russia’s September 13 regional elections and whether or not the Kremlin should be worried about upcoming Duma elections.
  • Understanding the Protests in Belarus [Lipman Series 2020] September 11, 2020
    In this week's PONARS Eurasia Podcast, Maria Lipman chats with Natalya Chernyshova (University of Winchester) and Nikolay Petrov (Chatham House) about the ongoing protests in Belarus, and what they mean for the future of the current regime.
  • Commentary | Комментарии

Russian Nationalism and the Crisis of Words

  • October 22, 2013
  • Andrey Makarychev

(Co-authored by Andrey Makarychev and Olga Gulina) The Russian model of multiculturalism is in crisis having recently proven itself to be a mixture of intolerance, xenophobia, and racism. These sentiments have all been publicly legitimized by a false rhetoric of “national patriotism,” with “Russia for Russians” having become the most popular slogan among growing nationalist segments within Russian society. Kondopoga, Manezh Square, Pugachev, and now Biryulyovo, are but a few examples of the nationalist riots and pogroms which have spread throughout the country.

Russia is of course not alone in this. European countries have their own records of ethnic-based discontent (France in 2005, Great Britain in 2011, Sweden in 2013, etc.) Yet in Paris, Lyon, London, or Stockholm, protestors were mostly young immigrants. In Biryulyovo, it was the locals who went to the streets in search of a “people's justice,” demanding the immediate investigation into the murder of local resident Yegor Scherbakov by someone of “non-Slavic appearance.”

Such anti-migrant actions have spilled over all across Russia. Conflicts with migrant communities have been registered in Saratov, Krasnodar, Omsk, Volgograd, and Astrakhan. Even former Moscow mayoral candidate Alexey Navalny began a campaign to introduce visa regimes for residents from Central Asia and the Southern Caucasus, receiving support from Russian ombudsman Vladimir Lukin.

What appear to be nationalist outbursts actually display a deep mistrust of the state, especially in its ability to regulate migration flows. The Putin regime wants to use nationalist sentiments to cement the conservative hardcore of its ideology yet is afraid of the scale of possible disobedience expressed beyond the existing institutions.

This makes the political implications of the Biryulyovo incident quite serious. The Kremlin has found itself squeezed between liberal and nationalistic groups of street protestors. The two protest streams, while separated by obvious ideological distinctions, both share a mutual mistrust of Putin's rule, causing substantial complications for Putin in his political game.

Putin is currently stuck between two approaches on how to react to the Biryulyovo riots. One option is to portray the protestors as offenders of public order who engage in illegal actions and interfere in state's ability to govern. According to this logic, organizers of violent rallies are criminals who must be brought to justice much in the same way that the state took legal action against the Bolotnaya Square protestors earlier this year.

The second approach was in fact already announced by Interior Minister Vladimir Kolokoltsev. After a heavily armed police squad brought the Azeri citizen implicated in the murder of Scherbakov to Kolokoltsev’s office, the minister assured everyone that the state would keep doing its best to meet citizens' demands for order and justice. In other words, this Hollywood-style show de-facto justified the street riots by making clear that it is in fact these angry voices from below that caused the police to act more efficiently.

We see that while the Kremlin criminalizes the liberal opposition, it tries to play a more cautious game with nationalist groups, trying to decide if they should be portrayed as extreme nationalists or rather as patriotic citizens who love their country and have reached a point of desperation because of the state's inefficiency. The Kremlin seems as of yet not to have decided on what words will better serve its interests. The political landscape in Russia is changing so rapidly that even properly naming its new actors is a hard task.

Andrey Makarychev is a professor at the Institute of Government and Politics, University of Tartu, Estonia. Olga Gulina is a former research fellow at the Kennan Institute for Advanced Russian Studies.

Andrey Makarychev
Andrey Makarychev
Website | + posts
Visiting Professor, Johan Skytte Institute of Political Studies
Affiliation

University of Tartu, Estonia
Links

Johan Skytte Institute (Bio), "PONARS as a Transnational Epistemic Community: An Insider's View" (2010 article)
Expertise

Russian Foreign and Security Policies, EU-Russian Relations, Issues of Regionalism and Federalism
  • Andrey Makarychev
    https://www.ponarseurasia.org/members/andrey-makarychev/
    The Minsk–Khabarovsk nexus: Ethical, performative, corporeal
  • Andrey Makarychev
    https://www.ponarseurasia.org/members/andrey-makarychev/
    Twigg: I worry about whether or not people are going to be willing to take Sputnik V in Russia
  • Andrey Makarychev
    https://www.ponarseurasia.org/members/andrey-makarychev/
    Culture as an Instrument
  • Andrey Makarychev
    https://www.ponarseurasia.org/members/andrey-makarychev/
    The Coronavirus and the Future of Liberalism
Related Topics
  • Makarychev
  • Russia
Previous Article
  • In the News | Hовости

Внутриполитическое уныние в Армении продержится до 2017 г.

  • October 22, 2013
  • Sergey Minasyan
View
Next Article
  • Commentary | Комментарии

The Russian-Dutch Disconnect

  • October 22, 2013
  • PONARS Eurasia
View
You May Also Like
View
  • Commentary | Комментарии

Путин и Лукашенко

  • Konstantin Sonin
  • August 29, 2020
View
  • Commentary | Комментарии

Отравление оппозиционеров в России превратилось в регулярную практику

  • Vladimir Gelman
  • August 22, 2020
View
  • Commentary | Комментарии

Авторитарные режимы не вечны: О ситуации в Белоруссии

  • Vladimir Gelman
  • August 14, 2020
View
  • Commentary | Комментарии

В Беларуси пока что все идет по российскому сценарию

  • Olexiy Haran
  • August 12, 2020
View
  • Commentary | Комментарии

Опасная игра Лукашенко

  • Pavel Baev
  • August 11, 2020
View
  • Commentary | Комментарии

Власть справилась

  • Sergei Medvedev
  • August 10, 2020
View
  • Commentary | Комментарии

Непереломный момент: Смена Конституции

  • Konstantin Sonin
  • August 6, 2020
View
  • Commentary | Комментарии

Кейс Фургала и три мифа режима

  • Kirill Rogov
  • August 5, 2020

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

PONARS Eurasia
  • About
  • Membership
  • Policy Memos
  • Recommended
  • Events

Permissions & Citation Guidelines

Input your search keywords and press Enter.