The attack in Moscow increased hatred towards Tajiks

The main suspects in the deadly attack in Moscow were from Tajikistan. Now, many Tajiks working in Russia are being deported or harassed.

Muhammad says he has found a better life in Russia. After immigrating from Tajikistan last fall, he has started driving a delivery van in Siberia, enrolled his children in local schools, applied for a Russian passport and started planning to buy an apartment with the savings from his large salary.

But those plans were derailed after the arrest of a group of Tajik nationals accused of last month's attack on a Moscow concert hall that killed 145 people. 
Muhammad's fear has grown that he could be involved in the blows that are being suffered by immigrants from Central Asia, who take care of Russia's economic development. 

The attack, he said, has erased all the hard work his family has gone through to become part of Russian society. In a telephone interview from the city of Novosibirsk, he added that he would leave for Tajikistan if the police or nationalist radicals targeted him.

"I will only have a piece of bread, but at least I will be in my homeland, living without the fear that someone might knock on my door," said Muhammad, whose last name is not mentioned for security reasons.

Russian police have responded to the terror attack, the country's deadliest in decades, by raiding thousands of construction sites, hostels, cafes and warehouses that employ or cater to immigrants. Russian courts have deported thousands of foreigners after fast-track hearings on alleged immigration violations. And Russian officials have proposed new measures to limit immigration. 
The official crackdown has been accompanied by an increase in xenophobic attacks across Russia, according to local media and rights groups, which have documented beatings, verbal abuse and racist graffiti directed at immigrants. 

The coup that exposed the contradictions of wartime Russia

The coup has exposed one of the main contradictions of wartime Russia, where government-promoted nationalist fervor has driven xenophobia to new highs, even as foreign workers have become an indispensable part. 

As Russian workers have gone to fight in Ukraine, taken jobs in arms factories or left the country to escape conscription, citizens of Tajikistan and two other Central Asian countries have partially filled the void. 

Among other things, they have rebuilt the occupied Ukrainian cities destroyed by the war. Some have signed up to fight for Russia, with promises of salaries and fast-track Russian passports. 

But these needs are being weighed against other priorities. 

The President of Russia, Vladimir Putin, made this clear last week in a speech to police officials. 

"Respect for our traditions, language, culture and history should be a determining factor for those who wish to come and live in Russia," he said.
Igor Efremov, a Russian demographer, estimated that there were about three to four million immigrants working in Russia at any one time. He said that the total population of Russia is about 146 million.

Most of these immigrants are from the three poor countries of the former Soviet Union in Central Asia: Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan. These countries, mostly Muslim, have become major sources of increasing immigration to Russia, and Western sanctions have made the country less attractive to many foreigners.

The massacre in the concert hall has exposed the fragility of their position. Since most immigrants in Russia today come from countries with different languages ​​and cultures and from different religions, they have been particularly exposed to harassment during the war in Ukraine, which the Kremlin has presented as an effort to preserve Russia's cultural identity. .

While a multitude of religions are practiced in Russia, the Kremlin consistently names the Russian Orthodox Church as a central element of Russian culture.

About a dozen Tajiks working in Russia have told "The New York Times" of their fear after the attack on March 22. Some have said they haven't left their homes for days, to avoid possible deportation or because they felt ashamed that men from their country had caused so much pain. 

"You're walking and you hear these comments: 'Go away, go far away,'" said Gulya, a Tajik cleaner who has worked in Russia for nearly two decades. "I love Russia, I love it as much as my country, but people are angry, aggressive," said Gulya, who is considering returning to her homeland if tensions rise. 

Valentina Chupik, a lawyer who provides legal aid to immigrants in Russia, said she has appealed 614 deportation orders since the terrorist attack. Another immigrant rights activist, Dmitri Zair-Bek, has indicated that he is aware of about 400 deportations in St. Petersburg alone. Petersburg.

"We have never seen such a scale of anti-immigration operations," Zair-Bek said in a telephone interview. 

Tajiks most affected by Russia's anti-immigration measures

Tajiks have been most affected by these measures.

Tajikistan started a civil war shortly after gaining independence, a conflict that has accelerated the spread of Islamic fundamentalism.

The country's status as the poorest of the former Soviet Union means there are few jobs available if people return. And some Tajik citizens, who have sought asylum in Russia because of the unrest in the country, have said that it is not safe to return to their homeland.
Evgeni Varshaver, a Russian immigration expert, has estimated that about a million Tajiks, or about a tenth of Tajikistan's population, are in Russia.

The poverty of Tajikistan and its political isolation has made it possible for Tajiks to leave for Russia once and for all. Three out of four long-term foreign residents that Russia has acquired since the start of its occupation of Ukraine have come from Tajikistan, according to the Russian statistics agency.

Most Tajiks in Russia are economic migrants who perform jobs increasingly shunned by Russian residents, such as construction and agriculture. Many of them speak little Russian and work on the margins of the formal economy, making them vulnerable to abuse by employers or corrupt officials.

Apart from seasonal workers, Russia remains the main destination for Tajikistan's small professional class, who often see the Soviet era as a period of stability and personal freedom compared to the turmoil of civil war and the rise of Islamic fundamentalism that has hit their country since independence.

Fluent in Russian and well-educated, this middle class of Tajiks tends to face fewer instances of xenophobia.

"I have seen how Tajiks are shouted at, the way officials treat them, just because they can," said Safina, a Tajik professional who worked in Russia. "But when I go to the same places, they treat me very well."

Still, even those who are culturally integrated have been the target of criticism since the terrorist attack.

A conservative Russian commander has reported Tajikistan-born singer Manizha Sangin to the prosecutor's office after she spoke about the brutal beatings of Tajik suspects, calling it "public torture." Sangin has represented Russia at the "Eurovision" song festival in 2021 with the song "Russian Woman".

Right-wing activists fear the government's treatment of suspects has helped fuel recent racist attacks against Tajiks.

Russian immigration experts say the attack on the concert hall could further change the direction of the immigration debate in the country, tilting towards national security priorities to the detriment of the economy. Some conservative politicians and commentators have called for new immigration restriction laws, while supporters of foreign workers have remained silent. 

Conservative businessman Konstantin Malofeev has created a political institute to influence ways to limit immigration.

"We are ready and want to live with Tajiks, Uzbeks, and Kyrgyz; they are our neighbors," Malofeevi said in a video interview from an office in Moscow, decorated with Orthodox Christian figures. However, he added that "these immigrant workers should become more Russian". 

The need for soldiers and workers at arms factories pushed Russian unemployment to a record low of 2.8 percent in February, creating acute job shortages that are fueling inflation and destabilizing the economy, according to Russia's Central Bank. The country's declining population makes it impossible to solve these shortages without foreign workers, immigration experts say.

"The most important thing is that the enemy does not penetrate", said demographer Efremov. 

Prepared by: Latra Gashi