student safety in St Petersburg

[Michele A. Berdy]

I can't say if the Western media "blows out of proportion" the dangers of 
Moscow and St. Pete for non-white people. Maybe they do. But as far as 
"hard, concrete evidence of the dangers" goes -- there is plenty of it. Sova 
and other NGOs track this, and even the official statistics are distressing. 
Several years ago I interviewed African and Middle Eastern students in 
Moscow, and all of them had experienced some variety of harrassment and/or 
violence (most many times), not only from civilians (mostly young men, but 
not always), but especially from cops. And these incidents did not happen 
when they were walking around at 1 am drunk and noisy; they happened when 
they were walking to or from a metro station at 5 pm. The situation is 
probably worse than surveys indicate, because -- if I recall the figure 
correctly -- only about 25 percent of the victims reported the incidents to 
the cops or NGOs. (People should also be aware that statistics for 2009 show 
a decrease in hate crimes, which reflects, to some extent, the cops waking 
up to the situation. But it also reflects the practice of putting African 
and Asian students in lock-down on Hitler's birthday, as well as closing all 
the markets on that day. It's an interesting form of crime prevention.)

Clearly there is a danger, even if it is a small percentage. But I sure 
understand parents who don't want their child to be in the 1 or 3 percent 
(or whatever it is).

I think the people who have experience with students here have given very 
good advice. Actually, I found it quite encouraging. I'm really glad that 
non-white students have been able to have such positive experiences here.

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