"A gypsy cannot be the face of Russia", with this title, in 2013, the story of Alsou Kurmasheva was taken, which she originally published on Radio Free Europe in Russian after the contest for Miss Russia with the title "The winner of Miss Russia, ethnic Tatar woman, the target of insults on the Internet", after the winner of this beauty contest, Elmira Abdrzakova, was declared the most beautiful in the Russian Federation, and especially after she was subjected to an unprecedented harassment of hate speech and threats on social networks.

This text by Alsou Kurmasheva was just one of many by her and some of her colleagues in the Russian media that year, in 2013, began to warn of the great growth of nationalism with outbreaks of fascism in Russia. She is the second American journalist detained in Russia in 2023, following Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich.

Alsou Kurmasheva is accused of not declaring herself a "foreign agent", a charge that carries a prison sentence of up to five years.

In the conditions in which Russia now finds itself, no one can say how long the journalist Kurmasheva will be in custody until she declares that she is a "foreign agent", and to make the absurdity even more drastic, if she confesses she will face a prison term of at least 5 years. This is expected by Alsou Kurmasheva according to the law that Putin passed in 2019 by which Russia tightened the laws on media and non-governmental organizations that can be qualified as "foreign agents"

Link: https://racin.mk/analizi/cziganka-ne-mozhe-da-bide-licze-na-rusija/

The beginning of Russia's full-fledged invasion of Ukraine found me in Warsaw. I had followed the news on TV that Putin would attack Ukraine, there was a lot of information and speculation on this subject in the media. On the morning of 24 February 2022, Russia indeed sent missiles into Ukraine. Still, there was hope that this was only an attempt to intimidate and cause panic. In Warsaw, large numbers of people were buying up goods and it was challenging to refuel my car because there were long queues at gas stations. People were afraid Putin would attack Poland as well.

That same day, thousands and then hundreds of thousands of people began to cross the border with Ukraine and to enter Poland. As a Romani activist in Poland, I received information within a short time about the Romani community from Ukraine trying to cross the border. I also heard about people who were not of ethnic Ukrainian origin who were not treated on an equal footing with other Ukrainian citizens fleeing the war.

I received many questions from various social organizations and coordinators of refugee accommodation places about how to help the Romani Ukrainian refugees. Amongst the requests for help were also complaints about the people of Romani origin arriving at the border: “They do not follow the rules of coexistence in the place”, “We see that ethnic Ukrainians do not want to stay near them.” I was surprised to see longstanding stereotypical opinions about Romani people resurfacing even in an emergency, during a war.

Link: https://romea.cz/en/zahranici-en/in-poland-romani-refugees-from-ukraine-have-faced-discrimination-and-rejection-from-the-start-of-russias-full-fledged-invasion