October 2008. Monthly Summary

In October, 2008, not less than 19 people, 4 of them dead, became victims or racially motivated attacks. Formally, it is much less than in the same period in 2007 when we registered 103 victims, including 6 fatalities. But firstly, on October 20, 2007, a neo-nazi raid took place in Moscow, resulting in not less than 30 victims, and secondly, it is absolutely obvious that we don't get reports about the crimes. Thus, after St. Petersburg Governor Matvienko said on August 19, 2008, that there were no hate crimes in the city, not a single crime of the sort has been reported there.

In October, bias motivated attacks were registered in 4 regions of Russia: in Moscow, Voronezh, Irkutsk and Nizhny Novgorod.

In all, from the beginning of the year, not less than 80 people were killed and 312 injured in 39 regions of Russia (in the same period in 2007, 71 people were killed and 539 injured).

In October 2008, not less than 5 verdicts for racially motivated violence were issued against 15 people in Moscow, St. Petersburg, Novosibirsk, Samara and Arkhangelsk regions. Notably, in the latter 2 cases charges were based on the article 119 of the Criminal Code (a threat of murder) with a racist motive (as far as we know, it's the first time in the Russian law enforcement practice).

In all, from the beginning of the year, there were 23 verdicts for racist violence against 77 people, including 19 people who received suspended sentences.

Prosecution of hate propaganda hasn't been slowed down either. In October 2008, not less than 6 guilty verdicts were issued against 8 people in St. Petersburg, Barnaul, Novosibirsk, Novgorod, Astrakhan and Chelyabinsk regions.

In all, from the beginning of the year, 37 verdicts for hate propaganda have been issued against 49 people, including 15 people who got suspended sentences.

The Federal List of Extremist Materials is being enlarged. In October, the number of entries grew from 267 to 277.