Room to Let, No Caucasians Please

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Date: Tue, 27 Apr 1999 08:27:21 +0300 (EET DST)
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Subject: Room to Let, No Caucasians Please

From: MINELRES moderator <[email protected]>

Original sender: Felix Corley <[email protected]>

Room to Let, No Caucasians Please


Jen Tracy,
The Moscow Times
16 April 1999

As Garrik sleeps on the floor of his brother's apartment, he thinks
about the day when he will rent his own.  But he fears it won't be
anytime soon.  That's because Garrik is Georgian.

Real estate agents and landlords are quick to trot out their reasons
for refusing to rent to people from the Caucasus.  They say they are
dirty, make a mess of the apartment, sell overpriced fruit in markets,
are involved in organized crime, use apartments for warehouses and
grill shish kebabs on the balcony.

"I know what the stereotypes are," said Garrik, a student.  "At the
university, I don't usually see this.  I didn't pay much attention to
it until I began to call around for an apartment.  Agents would simply
hang up on me when they heard my accent.

"I know they think we're all criminals.  I know a lot of Georgians
involved in the mafia.  But I can name a lot of Russians who are too.

The ads in St.  Petersburg's Sdam, Snimy, or To Let or Lease,
newspaper are often blatantly discriminatory, printing "no
Southerners" next to most apartment entries.  An occasional
"Southerners accepted" is printed in a sweeping show of cultural
grace.

Karhen Khazyakhan, a Russian citizen of Armenian ancestry and a
student, recounted his experiences trying to rent an apartment.
 
"They can tell immediately, from my accent, that I am from the
Caucasus," he said.  "When I told them once that my girlfriend was
American this balanced the equation in my favor.  But then the agent
hesitated and said she hoped my girlfriend wasn't a black American.
She told me she may be able to help me if we both weren't black.
 
In Russian, the word "black" is a disparaging term for people from the
Caucasus.

Russia has an anti-discrimination housing code.  But, as lawyer Yury
Schmidt said, "This housing code is a joke and no one pays any
attention to it.

"Of course," he added, "if a person from the Caucasus was refused an
apartment based on his national origin, he could, according to the
Constitution and the housing code, take his case to court.  He would
most likely not win and there is no precedent for such a case.

Real estate agents in St.  Petersburg and Moscow defended their
discriminatory advertisements.  "The owners of these properties have
every right to protect their property by renting or not renting to
whomever they choose," said one agent who spoke on condition of
anonymity.

"These Southerners live in such large numbers and often destroy the
apartments and no one gets compensated," she added.  Many people
readily admit they wouldn't rent to someone from the Caucasus and the
shish kebab-grilling stereotype is widespread and rarely even
recognized as a discriminatory.

"When we hear the word discrimination we think of something foreign
and Western," said Maria, a St. Petersburg resident.

"We think of black people from America.  This comes from Soviet-era
propaganda against Westernization and racism.  Then we think of Jews
and women in the work force.  We don't think of to whom we choose to
rent our apartments.  In fact, it didn't occur to me that it was
discrimination until you mentioned the word.

Human rights lawyer Schmidt said: "During Soviet times such
discrimination, if it existed at all, was very secret.  With
perestroika came the markets and the freedom to openly discriminate.

"The democratic laws that came in the changeover from communism to
democracy never made it to the enforcement level," he said.  "They
simply don't work.  Russia should have had anti-discrimination laws
that worked long, long ago.


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