Working Toward a Russia for All

The recent ultranationalist rampage in downtown Moscow was made possible by ineffective law enforcement and ethnic policies that could prove devastating for the multiethnic Russian state. Organizers tried to justify the Manezh Square rally as a protest against an improper investigation into the killing of Yegor Sviridov, an ethnic Russian and a football fan, shot dead in a street fight with natives from the North Caucasus. But protesters quickly shifted the focus of the protest, giving “Sieg Heil!” salutes and chanting the xenophobic slogans, “Russia for Russians,” “Moscow for Muscovites” and “Kill, kill!”