Tajiks in Russia fear crackdown after attack
Group arrested in Moscow massacre
Muhammad said he had found a better life in Russia. After emigrating from Tajikistan last fall, he began driving delivery vans in Siberia, enrolled his children in a local school, applied for a Russian passport, and started planning to buy an apartment with his much higher salary.
The arrest of a group of Tajik citizens accused of carrying out the attack that killed 145 people at a Moscow concert hall last month has upended those plans, filling Muhammad with fear of being swept up in the ensuing crackdown on the Central Asian migrants who prop up Russia’s economy.
The attack, he said, has erased all the efforts his family made to fit into society. In a phone interview from the city of Novosibirsk, he added that he would move back to Tajikistan if the police or nationalist radicals were to target him.
“I’ll only have a hunk of bread, but at least I’ll be in my homeland, living without fear that someone will bang on my door,” said Muhammad, whose last name is being withheld to protect him against possible retaliation.
Russian police have responded to the terrorist attack, by raiding thousands of construction sites, dormitories, cafes, and warehouses that employ and cater to migrants. Russian courts have deported thousands of foreigners after quick hearings on alleged immigration violations. And Russian officials have proposed new measures to restrict immigration.
The official crackdown has been accompanied by a spike in xenophobic attacks across Russia, according to local news media and rights groups.
The crackdown has exposed one of the main contradictions of wartime Russia, where nationalist fervor promoted by the government has brought xenophobia to new highs even as foreign workers have become an irreplaceable part of the country’s war effort.
As Russian workers went off to fight in Ukraine, took jobs at armaments factories, or left the country to avoid being drafted, citizens of Tajikistan and two other Central Asian countries have partly filled the void.
They have kept consumer goods flowing, built houses to satisfy the real estate boom fed by military spending, and rebuilt occupied Ukrainian towns. Some have signed up to fight for Russia.
But those needs are being measured against other priorities.
On Tuesday, Russian President Vladimir Putin made that clear in a speech to police officials. “Respect for our traditions, language, culture, and history must be the determinant factor for those who want to come and live in Russia,” he said.