Internet Forum Comments bring one Man to Court

In mid-July 2008, in the town of Aleksandrov (Vladimir region), a 23-year old man was charged for posting nationalistic comments on a forum, on the basis of Paragraph 1 of Article 282 of the Russian Criminal Code (condemning the incitement of hatred or hostility).

The accused found the messages of several Chechen refugees on the forum and reacted by creating a topic entitled :Why do we suffer this? We Russians, we are being wiped out.; The conclusion of the young commentator was that :[w]e must destroy this filth, small and great, so that this disaster would go away from the earth.; It was these remarks that caught the attention of the FSB.

The chief of the regional division of the FSB commented that the young man's call was not specific enough to be considered a real threat, but that preemptive measures need to be taken against individuals such as this one. The court's decision requires that the man pay 54,000 Rubles (approx. ┬1,500) as a penalty; however, since the accused considers himself not guilty, his attorney has filed an appeal.