Slavic Sacramento obtained reports from Sheriff’s Office of King County, Washington which may indicate hate behavior based on race between immigrants from Russia and Ukraine.
According to law enforcement documents obtained by Slavic Sacramento, a number of events occurred to the family of Maximus V. Buguiev, a native of Russia, who lives in Auburn, Washington, which could possible be qualified as a hate crime.
According to local law enforcement agencies, in May of this year, Buguiev’s wife used a masking tape to write pro Russia statement on the garage door of their family house: “Bakhmut is ours, thank you, Wagner!” In Cyrillic. A small flag of the Russian Federation hung next to the comment.
The police arrived several times in response to the call of Buguiev, who claimed that suspicious cars were constantly moving around his house, yelling something at Buguiev’s wife, and the local Ukrainian diaspora demanded that Russian symbols be removed.
Also, Slavic Sacramento got an audio recording of one of the local residents, who turned to the police with a request to send an officer to “deal with the situation.” The caller was concerned about the current situation and the tension in the community would not subside as long as the inscription continued to disturb neighbors.
However, the dispatcher advised the caring citizen not to escalate the situation: “That is his (the homeowner’s – SlavicSac.com) Constitutional right. We can’t impede other people’s rights”.
“Buguiev stated that he and his wife are Russians, and they wrote this message in Russian on the door of their garage in support of the Russian army against Ukraine … “You are fascists”, “you don’t belong in America”, “leave for Russia”, Bugiev heard such slogans from the protesters in his and his family address.
Despite the fact that the home owners removed the provocative inscription, they faced serious opposition from the Ukrainian, as Buguiev believes, community. In particular, their home and car in the driveway had been spray painted yellow and blue, later on the house was targeted with raw eggs, and the Volkswagen car parked on the garage road was dented, the wheels were punctured, and paint was also poured over.
As a result, immigrants from Russia now “do not feel safe to stay in their home” in fear, as the crowd of masked men threatening them reached 20-30 people,” the police report said.
“Bugiev’s mother, who lives in Ukraine, called to inform Bugiev that his home address and pictures of him and his wife were all over the Ukrainian news programs that said he wrote on his garage door. She called because she feared for his safety, since the report was on TikTok and was circulating with calls to pursue Buguev and “force him to pack his bags and leave the United States.”
Buguiev also reports that his address has been posted on social media and he has been getting threats via his cell phone to the point where he has had to get a new phone number. Maximus also stated that his name and address has been in the news in Ukraine addressing the situation that has been going on for the past few days.
his phone number was published online, and unknown people called him, threatening him, stating that they were going to put him out of business.”
For a while, Buguiev and his wife did not feel safe at home and were planning to stay in a hotel for a while.
It is noteworthy that recently in California, there is a government program called Stop the Hate, the main goal of which is to assist victims of hate attacks and prevent them. All victims and witnesses of hate incidents and hate crimes can report and are eligible for free hotline support services. California vs Hate is not affiliated with law enforcement, and you can report anonymously.
Any victim of or witness to a hate incident or crime in California can report it and receive support any time using the link above. You can also call 833-8-NO-HATE; (833) 866-4283 Monday – Friday from 9:00 am – 6:00 pm. If outside of those hours, you can leave a voicemail, or you can call 211 to report hate and seek support.
You can currently submit reports online in 15 languages and, when calling the hotline, you can get access to support in over 200 languages.
If you want to report a hate crime to law enforcement immediately or you are in present danger, please call 911.
This resource is supported in whole or in part by funding provided by the State of California, administered by the California State Library in partnership with the California Department of Social Services and the California Commission on Asian and Pacific Islander American Affairs as part of the Stop the Hate program. To report a hate incident or hate crime and get support, go to CA vs Hate.
