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Russian ultra-nationalists call for ethnic crackdown
Shocked reaction to Friday’s metro bombing is strengthening voices calling for a crackdown on ethnic minorities in the capital and a toughening of state power as the influence of nationalist and hawkish forces rises. In one of the strongest reactions to the blast, Dmitry Rogozin, co-leader of the populist-nationalist Rodina bloc, called for the declaration of a state of emergency and laid the blame for the attack squarely at the feet of "ethnic crime." "It is clear that this terrorist act was an attempt to undermine the power of the state in the country," Rogozin said Friday, Interfax reported. "This was committed on the eve of the presidential elections and the reaction to it should be the harshest. The enemy is here, within. This is ethnic crime, which is supporting terrorists arriving in Moscow, which owns property in Moscow and is imposing its will on the authorities. These ethnic criminals are behaving insolently and should get the harshest response." There is a large Chechen diaspora in Moscow.

Rogozin’s Rodina bloc surged into the State Duma with a surprisingly strong showing in this December’s parliamentary elections on a nationalist and anti-big business ticket. The campaign tapped into a rich vein of ethnic resentment as well as an ideological vacuum left by the collapse of communism and the failure of liberal market reforms to boost living standards for the majority. The bloc joined Vladimir Zhirinovsky’s nationalist Liberal Democratic Party, which also boosted its standing in the Duma, to give nationalist forces nearly 20 percent of all seats. The rise in influence of nationalist factions comes as forces from the security services grow in power under former KGB official President Vladimir Putin. On Friday, Zhirinovsky, too, called for all immigrants from the Caucasus regions to be deported from the capital.

Analysts said the growing voice of nationalist forces in the country’s political life could embolden leaders to take tougher action. "The situation in the country and the results of the Duma elections could give [Moscow Mayor Yury] Luzhkov and other leaders carte blanche to introduce tougher measures in pushing out migrants and in increasing police powers," said Yevgeny Volk, political analyst at the Heritage Foundation. Duma Speaker Boris Gryzlov, the former interior minister, also called for greater police powers.

Analysts said it was unlikely Rogozin’s call for a state of emergency would find any greater resonance, but they said moves to beef up security could strengthen the hand of those calling for tougher authoritarian measures. "Terrorism is becoming an element of everyday life in Russia," said Lilia Shevtsova, political analyst at the Carnegie Moscow Center. "This can be used to strengthen totalitarian tendencies. This is much more of a threat."
That's the whole idea, to turn a liberal democracy into a police state as it seeks to protect itself. The idea is that the people will then rise up and dump the regime, at which point the bad guys get to implement their grand plan. See Uraguay, Tupamaros.
She said the Kremlin would seek to keep the lid on nationalists like Rogozin because growing nationalist sentiment could ultimately provide an even bigger threat to Putin’s power base. "Nationalism is still not a dominant part of the Russian mentality," she said. "It is possible to stop nationalism in its tracks as a dominant ideology as long as the Kremlin does not force it to the top."
Posted by: Dan Darling 2004-02-10
http://www.rantburg.com/poparticle.php?ID=25941