Nationalist movements may affect Armenian-Russian relations

The nationalist movements in Russia may affect Armenian-Russian relations in a political sense, especially after Armenia announced its decision to join the Customs Union. Political scientist Hrant Melik-Shahnazarian expressed such an opinion at a meeting with reporters today, when speaking about the recent nationalist riots in Russia.

In his words, the nationalist ideology and movements are not something new - these feelings are pent up for years and occasionally people give vent to them for some reason or other.

Commenting on the recent stabbing death in Moscow, in which an Azerbaijani is a suspect, and the subsequent actions of nationalists, H. Melik-Shahnazarian noted that Russian law enforces used the wrong mechanism to calm passions.

“Use of force only increases xenophobia”, the political scientist said, adding that the nationality of a criminal (Azerbaijani, Armenian, or Georgian) makes no difference to Russian society, so each such crime becomes a problem for all the ethnic minorities.

We would remind you that he killing of Yegor Shcherbakov, 25, unleashed earlier this week the worst race riots Moscow has seen in three years and nationalists threatened further protests in areas populated by migrant workers from ex-Soviet Central Asia and Caucasus states.

Police said they had detained a native of Azerbaijan, Orhan Zeynalov, who is suspected of fatally stabbing Shcherbakov in front of his girlfriend while they were walking home on Thursday night.

The murder triggered the riots in Moscow's southern Biryulyovo district, where Shcherbakov was attacked.

Police said Zeynalov resisted special forces when they tried to detain him in Kolomna, a small town outside Moscow, Russian news agencies reported.

Tensions simmer in Moscow between disenchanted ethnic Russian youths and labor migrants mostly from predominantly Muslim ex-Soviet states.

Hundreds of nationalists gathered near a shopping centre in southern Moscow, Russian wires said, to protest against Shcherbakov's killing in what was promoted online by nationalists as an "Answer to Eid al-Adha."

City police official Oleg Sigunov was quoted by RIA as saying that 276 young people had been detained on their way to the protest.