Russian Human Rights Defender Murdered in Hate-Crime

Alert Issued: June 29, 2004

Mr. Nikolai M. Girenko , a prominent ethnologist and expert on extremism and racist violence in Russia , was shot dead at his St. Petersburg apartment on June 19 , 2004. Mr. Girenko was the head of the Minority Rights Commission at the St. Petersburg Scientific Union and had conducted studies of skinhead and other extremist organizations in Russia. Although investigators have not arrested any suspects , St. Petersburg authorities maintain that Girenko’s killing may have been an act of ordinary hooliganism – a charge prosecutors often file against suspects in extremist attacks.

Throughout his career as an advocate for human rights and social justice , Mr. Girenko was considered “ Russia’s leading authority” on extremist violence. He tracked the emergence skin-head groups in Russia while also examining how the literature and propaganda of extremist groups incite violence. Although Mr. Girenko made great strides as a defender of human rights , twenty to thirty killings motivated by ethnic or religious bias reportedly occur every year in St. Petersburg. Like other hate-motivated attacks and killings , the murder of Mr. Girenko has served to intimidate members of Russia’s minority communities. A high level of racist violence against minorities has reported in recent years , including attacks upon “dark skinned” people from the south , Jews , immigrants , and foreigners—with little effective government response.

Mr. Girenko’s killers must be brought to justice. Help maintain Nikolai Girenko’s legacy by urging President Vladimir Putin to pursue the investigation as a crime of hate.

Sample Letter:

President Vladimir Putin
c/o H.E. Ambassador Yuri V. Ushakov
Embassy of the Russian Federation to the United States
2650 Wisconsin Ave , NW
Washington , DC 20007
Fax: 202-298-5735

Dear President Putin:

I am deeply concerned about the recent murder of Mr. Nikolai Girenko , a prominent ethnologist and expert on racist and extremist violence in Russia. Mr. Girenko was shot dead at his apartment on June 19 , 2004 by unknown assailants and St. Petersburg investigators have yet to apprehend those responsible for his death.

Mr. Girenko was head of the Minority Rights Commission at the St. Petersburg Scientific Union. In the early 1990s, Mr. Girenko was elected to the St. Petersburg city council and became a member of the committee on human rights and ethnic minorities. Over the past two years, he undertook two dozen studies on neo-Nazi and skinhead groups for St. Petersburg and Moscow authorities. Mr. Girenko was perhaps best known for co-authoring a book classifying ethnically motivated violence in Russia.

While St. Petersburg authorities claim to have assigned over 120 investigators to the case , Deputy Prosecutor Andrei Zhukov has reportedly stated that Girenko's killing might have been an act of hooliganism – an all too common charge that prosecutors file against suspects involved in extremist attacks. Over the years , Mr. Girenko had received so many death threats that he eventually stopped reporting them to local authorities. His reports and studies of racist and extremist violence reportedly led to numerous criminal convictions in Russia.

Although Girenko made great strides as a defender of human rights, twenty to thirty killings motivated by ethnic or religious bias reportedly occur every year in St. Petersburg. Like other hate-motivated attacks and killings, the murder of Nikolai Girenko has served to intimidate members of Russia’s minority communities. A high level of racist violence against minorities has reported in recent years, including attacks upon “dark skinned” people from the south, Jews, immigrants, and foreigners—with little effective government response. Russian law provides for more severe penalties when the motive of national, racial, or religious hatred is present in committing an offence, but few prosecutions of this kind of been reported.

I strongly urge you to take action to ensure that the appropriate authorities find and punish those who are responsible for Nikolai Girenko’s death

Thank you for your attention to this very serious matter.

President Vladimir Putin
c/o H.E. Yuri V. Ushakov
Ambassador of the Russian Federation to the United States
2650 Wisconsin Ave , NW
Washington , DC 20007
Fax: 202-298-5735