March

On March 9, 2007 in Krasnoarmejsk, Saratov Region, disturbances caused by a local businessman's death took place. A citizen of Azerbaijan stabbed him in a fight.

On March 6, 2007 the U.S. Department of State (the Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor) released its Country Reports on Human Rights Practices in 2006. The report on Russia covers different aspects of this problem, including the situation of national, racial and ethnic minorities (see Section 5), and the freedom of speech in connection with the new version of the law "On Countering Extremism" (see Section 2.a).

On February 17, 2007, in Orenburg (Southern Urals), a group of youngsters attacked, in broad daylight, a 21-year-old Uzbekistan citizen who had legally worked as a shoemaker. He was hospitalized with multiple stab wounds and died a few days later, on March 2. On March 3, four teenagers were arrested and charged in connection with the attack.

A newly formed State "Party for a Just Russia" (or "A Just Russia") with Sergey Mironov, the Russian Senate Chairman as a leader, seems to achieve it's originality through becoming a party with a slight smell of xenophobia and anti-Semitism. Perhaps, this will serve as a difference between "A Just Russia" and the "United Russia" for many of the voters.

In February, 2007 we registered 29 attacks with at least 44 victims, 7 of them dead. It's not much more, than in January, but this figure will certainly be higher, because often the attacks are registered much later than they were committed.

On February, 28, 2007 Moscow nazis interrupted political debate in "Bilingua" club. During the discussion about 15 nazis from National Socialist Society and a movement called Format 18 started to shout "Sieg Heil" and to give nazi salutes. Maxim Martsinkevich (alias Tesak, which means "hatchet"), one of their leaders, demanded the floor and finally was given it to yell nazi and anti-liberal slogans.