Russian Nationalist Urges Support for Putin

[pampango]

An influential nationalist leader urged his followers on Wednesday to throw their support behind Prime Minister Vladimir V. Putin, telling them that they will no longer have to shiver at street demonstrations because the Kremlin will grant them access to executive and legislative power.

The leader, Dmitri O. Rogozin ... was speaking about coming parliamentary elections in which Mr. Putin’s party, United Russia, aims to preserve its lock on power. But his remarks had resonance amid growing tensions over whether Mr. Putin or his protégé, President Dmitri A. Medvedev, will run as the Kremlin’s presidential candidate.

Ethnic nationalism makes up a powerful strain in Russian politics, and there have been signs that the parliamentary campaign will tap into grievances against migrants from the Caucasus and Central Asia. This month, Mr. Medvedev delivered a speech in which he warned against the spread of xenophobia and intolerance, as well as “reactionary and conservative ideas.”

In his remarks on Wednesday, Mr. Rogozin told his followers that they would be rewarded with influence if they joined forces with United Russia, something he called “a pragmatic approach.” This represents a substantial shift, since his previous party posed a pugnacious challenge to United Russia when it was banned in Moscow in 2006, on the grounds that it incited ethnic hatred. “Our main goal should be to integrate with power,” Mr. Rogozin told the Congress of Russian Communities, a political organization created to support ethnic Russians living outside Russia’s borders. Mr. Rogozin says the organization has 100,000 members.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/22/world/europe/russian-nationalist-supports-a-putin-presidential-bid.html?_r=1

Mr. Medvedev shouldn't be surprised. When you make a speech warning against xenophobia and intolerance, you run the risk of alienating the nationalists.

I read an article in a Moscow newspaper last year that dealt with the problems caused by "Caucasian immigrants" to Moscow. Of course, the article was referring to immigrants from the Caucasus mountain region but it's not a term you see much here.