Kulaeva: issue of treating Gipsies in Russia is very painful

Stefaniya Kulaeva, a human rights activist of the Anti-Discrimination Centre "Memorial", said that the issue of attitude to Gipsies proved to be interesting to many and rather painful, after the debate had burst out and is still underway after the media reported about the incident in St-Petersburg metro, when a radio announcement was made: "Take care, Gipsies are here!"

We remind you that on April 8, on the International Gipsies' Day, at 11:00 a.m., the Sakharov Public Centre in Moscow will host a press conference on the issue of reaction to human rights violations of the Gypsies-citizens of Russia.

The pretext to hold a meeting with journalists was in publications of some Petersburg and Russian media (for example, the "Komsomolskaya Pravda"), where the episode of the January incident in St-Petersburg metro was actively discussed. Journalists then expressed their concern that inadmissible announcements are made at metro stations over the radio.

"The metro press service gave a vague reaction, as if they saw no serious problem, as, at least, it was reported in papers. We started correspondence on the topic, stating that, nevertheless, the problem exists. Then, the metro top managers had agreed that such things were inadmissible and held some explanatory work with their employees," said Stefaniya Kulaeva.

According to her story, "it turned out that many people were excited by this problem." "Some people began to call the Russian nation to get mobilized to defend those who had so correctly warned passengers in the metro. In their opinion, the human rights activists who object to public appeals to take care of Gipsies are not right," she said.

She has added that she was still called from different masses media who said that there is a problem of Gipsy swindlers. In her opinion, such statements indicate that the problems of racism and xenophobia are so acute that quite plenty of people are overwhelmed by prejudices. "The questions are asked by people who understand, however, that a phrase: 'Take care, Jews are here" is absolutely inadmissible," Ms Kulaeva has emphasized.

She has briefed the situation in the country as follows: not only there exist terrible racism in different forms, aggression, in verbal and other forms, discrimination, but still there's some frivolous attitude to these issues: as though it's all just fun. "If we put the words 'Jew', 'militiaman' or 'Afro-American' instead, yes, it's terrible, but if we say 'Gypsy', it's just cheerful", she has noted.

According to the "Memorial" representative, the situation in the Southern Federal District of Russia is also very complicated. "We have great Gipsy population there, and they are quite noticeable. It's the case in the Rostov, Astrakhan, Volgograd Regions, and more to the south. There, they have same problems, if not more," Stefaniya Kulaeva said to the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent.