Russian patriotism of ‘fists and knives’

It is a collateral effect of the war in Ukraine. Disputes over the conflict have culminated in several homicides. The most affected area is southern Russia. Expert: The risk is that the “pogroms” against non-aligned people will degenerate and spread.

Moscow () – Tensions are growing over crime in the Russia of the great mobilization. Since the beginning of the aggression against Ukraine, Russian citizens have been torn between resentment, exaltation and fear. Now there is growing fear of a growing social conflict between those who do not want to “die for Putin” and those who are willing to kill to defend their homeland.

In recent months, in southern Russia there have been at least three murders over street discussions about the war in Ukraine. In each of these cases, the investigators denied that this was the cause of the crime, or simply kept silent about the motives. An investigation of Kavkaz.Realii he tried to shed light on these events and comment on their effect on social relations.

On the night of June 20, in the village of Bolshaja Martinovka (Rostov region), locals beat Viktor Goldobin, a 49-year-old motorcyclist, to death. According to the official version, two men aged 18 and 28 argued with him at the pool table, the situation culminated in fistfights and the men fled, leaving the man dead.

The case was classified as a “sudden street brawl”. However, a video on Instagram shows that one of the assailants shouted: “Do you like Ukraine?”, while his wife goaded him: “Get that bastard out of here!”. The video was on the network for a few days, then it was removed and its author closed the account. An acquaintance of Goldobin says that he was outspoken against Putin’s policies, and that after the invasion of Ukraine he had told his friends that “the sad and corrupt drunkenness of the leaders has led Russia to fascism.”

A similar murder occurred on the Rostov-on-Don riverbank on the night of August 15, when a 33-year-old Russian army captain from Moscow province shot 51-year-old Roman Govasari with his Makarov, who was transporting materials to make extra money.

According to the local publication 161.ru, the first interrogations of the police indicate that a heated discussion took place between the two about Ukraine. However, there was no official comment from the police headquarters or the army, and the soldier was held in solitary confinement for two months. The victim’s son, Roman Junior, gave several interviews in which he said that he did not believe the version of the discussion about Ukraine, because his father always advised him to avoid talking about political issues.

On August 25, in Gelendzhik, a fight between a 32-year-old tourist from Belgorod and a local turned into a tragedy. It seemed like a classic drunken argument, but the next day a video appeared on Telegram, released immediately after the arrest of the murder suspect, Nikolaj Pavlov, in which he says that the deceased was Ukrainian and had “promised to cut off my mother’s head “.

Surveillance cameras captured the moment of the murder: the footage shows four men, one of whom is kneeling in front of the others; Suddenly, one of them cut his throat with a knife, which was later found by the investigators. According to some witnesses, the discussion lasted at least an hour and a half and was about the war in Ukraine, but the Krasnodar regional police headquarters called it a “conflict over personal issues”.

The internal tensions in Russian society have reached exacerbated levels due to the war in Ukraine, as confirmed by Mikhail Savva, doctor of political science, director of the “Sova” analysis group: “Official propaganda has changed. It is no longer just government propaganda. masses, because there are no possible alternatives either, since the expression of different opinions is prohibited by law and must be punished. Therefore, whoever dares to support them becomes a pariah for the whole society. If the State does not act, then there is someone willing to do justice by their own hands or with weapons at their disposal.The risk is that it degenerates into generalized forms of “pogroms” against the non-aligned.

Professor Savva also points to the concomitant cause of the growing number of people returning from combat with shattered nervous systems, thirsty for confrontations with enemies and traitors. Finally, many are consumed with anger by overlapping guilt complexes – against the West and the sanctions, or against the country’s leadership and the military, for not having been able to do anything to prevent the disaster – and feel the need to act in some way. way.