Racism and Xenophobia in February 2014

The following is our monthly review of instances of xenophobia and radical nationalism, along with any government countermeasures, for the month of February 2014. The review is based on material gathered by Sova Center in the course of our daily monitoring.

Three people were killed this month in xenophobic or neo-Nazi attacks. Since the beginning of the year, no fewer than 14 people have fallen victim to racist and xenophobic violence, with six of those being killed, in six regions of the country.

No fewer than four objects were targeted this month in instances of xenophobic vandalism. We have recorded five such acts so far this year, in four regions of Russia.

Ultra-right activists lay relatively low this month. A few people from the National-Democratic Party (NDP) and the ‘Russians’ movement participated in public actions in relation to the Bolotnaya Case. How many ultra-right activists were present, though, is unknown as they went practically unnoticed.

On Saint Petersburg’s Grazhdansky Prospekt, people held a gathering ‘against ethnic crime’ on February 1. It was organized by the National Socialist Initiative (NSI), and drew roughly fifty people.

Ultra-right activists and groups have been following the events in Ukraine closely, with some actually traveling there. In Saint Petersburg a picket was staged in support of the ‘Maidanists’ prior to the Ukrainian protest movement having been perceived as expressly anti-Russian. The action was held on February 16 on Saint Petersburg’s Field of Mars.

Nationalists went on with ‘raids’ continuing the “hunt for migrants.” In Yaroslavl, a new department of the Guestbusters project of the ‘Russians’ movement emerged. Great Russia, under the leadership of Andrey Savelev, also launched the anti-migrant project StopNelegal (roughly equivalent to ‘Stop Illegals’).

February saw one criminal conviction on charges of violence motivated by hatred. The defendant was twenty-year-old neo-Nazi Gleb Tsyba, who attacked antifa activist Vladimir Kiselev. Since the beginning of the year, Russian courts have issued no fewer than five convictions on such charges against eleven people, in four regions of the country.

For xenophobic propaganda, Russian courts issued four convictions this month. Four people in Moscow, the Astrakhan and Kemerov regions, and the Komi Republic were convicted. So far this year, there have been no fewer than 17 such convictions against as much people in 15 regions of Russia.

The Federal List of Extremist Materials was updated four times in February, on the 4^th, 14^th and 24^th. Entries 2202-2224 were added. The list was supplemented by a range of ultra-right videos; the neo-Nazi websites Heroes of Freedom and Aryan Liberation Front; materials from the regionalist Council of Siberian People; poetry by A. Kharchikov; a Jehovah’s Witnesses brochure; and militant Islamist materials.