June 2009. Monthly Summary

In June, 2009, according to our data, not less than 27 people, including 4 fatalities, became victims of racist and neo-Nazi violence. (In June, 2008, 1 person was killed and 20 injured.) In all, from the beginning of the year 2009, not less than 36 people died and 147 were injured as a result of such attacks. (In 2008, in the same period of time, not less than 67 people died and 266 were injured.)

In June, neo-Nazi skinheads' attacks and other incidents were reported in Moscow, St. Petersburg, Vladivostok, Lipetsk, Maikop, Stavropol region. In all, from the beginning of 2009, violent racist attacks took place in 25 regions of Russia.

The most alarming was a series of attacks in Vladivistok which took place in the first fortnight in June. All these attacks were committed by the same pattern (and probably by the same group), against people of non-Slavic (Asian) appearance. As a result of these attacks, not less than 6 people were injured, including one person from Vietnam who died.

The most high-profile was a racist raid in Stavropol region on June 3, when a group of youngsters shouting nationalistic slogans beat up several people.

In June, vandalism was mainly connected to the activities of :Russky Obraz; (:Russian Image;) group, which managed to organize an anti-abortion graffiti action in 10 Russian cities (at least twice those graffiti were also racist). This is the first all-Russian action of :Russky Obraz; we know about.

In all, from the beginning of the year, we have registered not less than 41 cases of neo-Nazi and racially motivated vandalism. For the first time in many years, acts of vandalism against monuments in the memory of the Great Patriotic War are on the first place: there have been not less than 18 ideologically motivated organized incidents of this sort in 2009. Jewish objects are on the second place (not less than 10 cases), and objects of the Orthodox Church are on the third place (not less than 7 cases).

In June, the Federal List of Extremist Materials was enlarged on June 9 and 25. Now it contains 386 paragraphs. The quality of the list remains quite poor. Out of 11 paragraphs added in June, not less than 2 are reduplications of already existing paragraphs, and 4 are mere leaflets.

In June, we got to know about one more vacation of an unlawful verdict: in April, followers of :Falun Dafa; managed to win the case, so that their materials are no longer considered to be extremist. However, these books haven't been removed from the List of Extremist Materials.

In June, there were not less than 8 guilty verdicts against 24 people for violent hate crimes, where the court admitted the hate motivation: in Moscow, Novosibirsk, Barnaul, Belgorod, Kostroma and Krasnoyarsk. On June 11, 2009, in Yaroslavl, a court issued another guilty verdict for the murder of a Tajikistan citizen, but we don't know if the hate motive was recognized.

In all, from the beginning of the year, there were 20 guilty verdicts against 54 people for violent hate crimes (8 of the convicted got suspended sentences and one was sentenced to compulsory medical treatment).

There were 4 verdicts against 7 people (3 of them got suspended sentences with no other sanctions) for xenophobic propaganda in June: in Kemerovo, Murmansk, Omsk, Orenburg. Besides, in Moscow, editor in chief of a rightwing newspaper :Duel; Yury Mukhin was sentenced to 2 years of suspended sentence for calls to extremist activities (article 280 of the Criminal Code).

In all, from the beginning of the year, there were 17 guilty verdicts against 24 people (12 of them got suspended sentences with no additional sanctions) for xenophobic propaganda (article 282 of the Criminal Code), and 2 verdicts (both with suspended sentences) for public calls to extremist activities (article 280 of the Criminal Code).