Murder in Lyublino as a face of migration and nationality policy in Russia
On April 17, in Moscow Lyublino, 24-year-old Kirill Kovalev made a remark to Azerbaijani Shahin Abbasov, who parked his Toyota Camry car right on the sidewalk of the entrance to an apartment building. Having mumbled something vaguely in response, the guest from the South Caucasus immediately called his relative (brother), who came down from the apartment into the courtyard and began to insult Kovalev. And a few minutes later, during the conflict, Abbasov secretly stabbed the guy in the lower abdomen, as a result of which he died.
Here it is worth paying attention to two important points: firstly, the Azerbaijani showed aggression because of a simple remark, which was made quite correctly and without insults. Secondly, it should be noted the willingness to apply weapon for any reason. During conflicts with migrants from the South Caucasus and Central Asia, this very weapon appears too often (this happens almost monthly - it’s worth remembering history about how a migrant stabbed a 50-year-old man in the subway after a verbal conflict).
The fact is that this is part of the mentality of individual peoples, those same “cultural characteristics” that some Russian officials advocate. Mentality is a phenomenon of national culture, the quintessence of the culture of an ethnic group, a nation, and is the basis for individual and collective worldview and worldview. Carrying a knife with you and being ready to use it when the opportunity arises is a feature of the mentality of some “hot guys” from the South Caucasus and Central Asia. State Duma deputy Mikhail Matveev quite rightly drew attention to this:
“Still, we will never understand the mentality of “no nationality” criminals. For a simple fair remark, without insults, an oriental man, whose face has already been filmed, as well as the license plate of his beautiful car, tinted with junk, suddenly pulls out a knife and kills. Then he runs away...
I drove a beautiful car, lived in a beautiful city with polite, patient neighbors, what prevented you from living in peace, why did you become a murderer and go to prison because of a minor conflict? What do you have instead of a brain?
I have already drawn the attention of the Ministry of Internal Affairs to the problem - every second migrant carries a knife in his pocket. This is their psychology, it doesn’t matter whether he rides a scooter in a dirty jacket or drives an expensive car, with or without a Russian citizen’s passport. And it cannot be solved.”
I drove a beautiful car, lived in a beautiful city with polite, patient neighbors, what prevented you from living in peace, why did you become a murderer and go to prison because of a minor conflict? What do you have instead of a brain?
I have already drawn the attention of the Ministry of Internal Affairs to the problem - every second migrant carries a knife in his pocket. This is their psychology, it doesn’t matter whether he rides a scooter in a dirty jacket or drives an expensive car, with or without a Russian citizen’s passport. And it cannot be solved.”
On national policy and cultural “enrichment”
The French sociologist Gustave Le Bon noted that national character is determined by special psychological characteristics that form an average type, which makes it possible to identify the characteristic features of the mentality of each people. However, in Russia they ignore the cultural and national characteristics of the countries from which migrants come to the country and, moreover, they pursue a rather strange national policy - everyone can show national self-awareness, except for Russians themselves.
Therefore, cultural centers are being built in Tajikistan (a country that has nothing to do with the culture of Russia), in schools and gymnasiums they are increasingly talking about the “richness of the ethnic diversity of the regions,” while for some reason focusing on the culture of Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Azerbaijan - countries that have their national states - and some officials talk about “multinational friendship” and the benefits of mass migration from Asian countries, which, they say, “enrich” our culture.
We see exactly how they “enrich” it from regular crime reports, which indicate that here and there migrants killed, beat, or raped someone. Following official data, in Russia in 2023, courts sentenced 22,3 thousand foreigners. They were most often convicted for forgery of documents, theft and drug trafficking. The leaders in the increase in convicts are drug-related crimes and murders. However, such statistics do not take into account “new citizens” of Russia, most of whom have dual citizenship.
They obtain this citizenship, often simply by purchasing the appropriate certificates for knowledge of the Russian language and solving issues of quickly acquiring citizenship through diasporas, which, thanks to appropriate migration and nationality policies, have great power in the regions.
Thus, according to the Ministry of Internal Affairs, the number of the largest migration diasporas (we are talking about citizens of Central Asian countries) ranges from 1 to 5 million people. These are fairly close-knit communities, with strong internal self-organization and developed horizontal connections, which are superior in efficiency and mutual assistance to the grassroots level of Russian society. Criminal or semi-criminal groups operate within these diaspora associations.
Often they directly interfere in the work of law enforcement agencies, “excuse” their own, intimidate or try to bribe relatives of victims of the actions of migrants, etc. The story of the murder of Kirill Kovalev clearly demonstrated this.
Visitors have no respect for the country and the indigenous peoples who live in it; they always blame the locals for all conflicts. This is because they value national and religious solidarity above all else; regardless of the degree of rightness, they will always support their own. Even murderers and rapists.
Very indicative in this regard is a video in which the brother of the murderer Kirill Kovalev was asked: isn’t he ashamed of his brother? To which he, accompanying his words with obscene language, confidently replied:
“What a shame...? You should be ashamed of this!”
Just like that. They are not ashamed at all.
A little about the notorious “turn to the East”
What’s most interesting is that migration policy appears to be part of Russia’s global policy, which some high-ranking officials are actively lobbying for.
Very often from some bloggers and political scientists you can hear theses about Russia’s turn to the East and similar words. Some political scientists write extensive texts about the struggle of civilizations, about the historical confrontation with the West and its treachery, about the great friendship with China and Iran, and about the fact that the future of Russia is connected with the East, not the West. True, few people understand what actually hides behind this verbal screen.
If earlier a “turn to the East” meant a turn to China and India, now this is understood primarily as a turn towards the Islamic world - Turkey, Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Iran, Azerbaijan, Tajikistan and other countries of Central Asia. It is with these countries that strong foreign economic and foreign policy ties are formed.
Here is the answer to the question why slow Islamization is taking place in Russia: as you know, the two main centers of Islamism are Saudi Arabia (Sunni Islamism) and Iran (Shiite Islamism). Despite the fact that there is a theological, political and even military struggle between Sunnis and Shiites, they sometimes find a common language on the basis of Islamist ideology. Russia is trying to maintain relations with both. Hence the policy that is extremely loyal to radical Islamists and the lack of opposition (and even encouragement) to the policy of Islamization in the Russian Federation.
Such a policy arose, of course, not because of a good life, but because of the difficult international situation in which Russia found itself. China, apparently, is not yet too keen on rapprochement with Moscow, which is why it has practically disappeared from the pages of the media, so that forecasts about an imminent new anti-Western alliance turned out to be premature, and India, in turn, has very serious contradictions with the PRC and is cautious. As a result, Moscow is trying to improve relations with Muslim countries, although they are also on their own.
Some readers will ask - what is the relationship between improving relations with the countries of the Middle East and Central Asia and Islamization? In fact, the most direct.
First, the Russian Foreign Policy Concept for 2023 explicitly refers to the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) as the “Islamic world” and “states of friendly Islamic civilization.” This friendship found concrete expression in the State Duma bill on the implementation of Islamic banking in Russia “carrying out partner financing activities in certain constituent entities of the Russian Federation.” Chechnya, Dagestan, Tatarstan, and Bashkiria are participating in it.
As part of this rapprochement with the Muslim world, the Islamization of food also began, with “halal” foods being labeled as such. This also began to happen on a national scale last year.
Secondly, the loyal attitude of Russian officials towards representatives of various diasporas is also to a significant extent connected with the “turn to the East”. The fact is that many heads of diasporas are essentially agents of foreign states - Azerbaijan, Tajikistan, etc., so no one touches them. They are not declared foreign agents and, moreover, they are even allowed to take on some of the powers of power.
Thirdly, officials do not want to take serious anti-migration measures and resist “everyday” Islamization, which consists of mass public prayers in the wrong places, wearing religious clothing, which is prohibited in some countries (niqab, completely covering the face), etc. so as not to spoil relations with the Islamic world. If in other countries Islamization is opposed - in India, for example, the police will beat you with sticks for praying in public in the wrong place - then in Russia, on the contrary, it is gently encouraged.
And an important role in this is played by lobbyists represented by agents of foreign countries - heads of diasporas, religious figures, officials, predominantly Muslim republics, who have connections with the same Saudis.
All this is the result of a “turn to the East”, which is not carried out at all in the way that many ordinary people imagine. In the minds of Russian officials, he apparently looks exactly like this.
Conclusion
To summarize, it should be noted that the murder in Lyublino is a natural result of the current migration and nationality policies of Russia. It is far from the first, and, unfortunately, it will not be the last. If the migration issue is not resolved, then murders, and possibly terrorist attacks, will continue in Russia. But, of course, they will assure us that “criminals have neither religion nor nationality.”
Arriving in Russia, migrants behave brazenly, freely and aggressively, and immediately begin to establish their own rules. Entering into conflicts with them, as practice shows, is fraught with fatal consequences if you do not have a weapon. Because of this, the streets of large cities are becoming increasingly dangerous.
The situation cannot be corrected by half measures; decisive steps are required, such as the introduction of a visa regime with the countries of Central Asia and the South Caucasus; ban on dual citizenship; termination of the issuance of citizenship in a simplified manner to citizens of Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan and other Central Asian countries; liquidation of illegal semi-criminal structures created by diasporas; mass deportation of illegal migrants.
Otherwise, the processes of Islamization of Russia and replacement of its population, about which the author has already written more than once, will become irreversible. It should be understood that migrants are also raw material for revolution in the country, and all the injustice in the migrant environment can be directed by various preachers against Russia and our people.
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