Dear All
A member has asked me to advertise this lecture at Sussex University.
Best wishes
Ute
Alexander Verkhovsky, a leading expert on racism in Russian society, will
be speaking to the University of Sussex Russian Society
(www.sussex.ac.uk/Units/russian/) on 'Ultra-nationalism and the rise of
hate crime in the last years of Putin's rule'. The talk will be held in
room A155 at 4pm on Wednesday April 30th, at the University's Falmer
campus (www.sussex.ac.uk/about/campusmap.html) in the Arts A building.
Alexander is the director of Moscow's SOVA Center for Information and
Analysis ( www.sova-center.ru), well known for its reports on issues of
political nationalism; hate crimes; counteracting xenophobic violence (and
the abuse of laws designed to counteract extremism); and the role of
religion in contemporary Russia. Alexander has published widely on these
topics and is one of the most cited researchers in the field – his
research is used by OSCE and Amnesty International as well as academics
and international news media. This is an opportunity to hear about and
discuss a pressing problem which has been largely overlooked in the long
speculation over Putin's succession plans. Racist attacks in the Russian
Federation have been rising at an alarming rate over the last few years:
SOVA counted 47 racist murders in 2005 and 56 in 2006. 57 people were
murdered between January and November of 2007, and in January and February
of this year alone, 26 people have been murdered and a further 72 injured
as a result of racist violence. This talk will explore the dynamics of
hate crime and legal counteraction to it, and changes in ultra-nationalism
in today's Russia.