The violent race riots directed against natives of the North Caucasus and other non-Slavs in Moscow's Manezh Square last month have also lead to an upsurge of openly anti-Semitic expression in Russia’s online media, blaming the Jews for the incidents and calling for attacks on them. As in past cases, the connection between Russia’s anti-immigrant nationalists and anti-Semitic incitement and violence has been very visible.
The riots started as some 5,000 football fans and Russian nationalists gathered on the square to protest inept police handling in the killing of Yegor Sviridov, a Spartak Moscow football club fan who was shot dead in early December during a street fight with migrants from the Caucasus. Aslan Cherkessov, 26, from the North Caucasus republic of Kabardino-Balkaria, has been formally charged with the killing and placed in custody.
Immediately after the Manezh clash, Aleksandr Kogan of the Israeli-Russian portal, izrus.co.il, reported that “many Russian bloggers and authors of extremely popular outlets” wrote stories of an openly anti-Semitic nature, in some cases blaming the Jews for the clashes and in others calling for turning popular anger on them."
Days after the riots, David Shechter, a spokesman for the Jewish Agency in Moscow, said that “as a result of the disorders and manifestations in Moscow we have noted a sharp increase in interest among the Jewish population” in emigration to Israel.
Since that time, the situation has moved from the blogosphere to the streets. Schechter was quoted as saying that “on the wall of the metro entrance on Manezh Square have appeared graffiti featuring large black letters [calling for] ‘the Kikes to Get Out of Russia’ and featuring a swastika”
Yuri Kanner, the president of the Russian Jewish Congress, noted that there has been a growth of xenophobic and anti-Semitic articles in the blogosphere. He pointed out that at the time of the disorders, the Russian militia had visibly increased security around synagogues and other Jewish sites in Moscow, an indication that they were ready to block any threat but also one that shows they were concerned that such a threat was likely and immediate.
