January, 2010. Monthly Summary

In January, 2010, not less than 16 people, including 3 fatalities, became victims of racist and neo-Nazi attacks. ( In January, 2009, not less than 55 people, including 15 fatalities, became victims.)

Violent hate attacks were reported in Moscow (2 dead, 8 injured), St. Petersburg (6 injured), Kaliningrad (1 dead) and Novosibirsk (1 injured).

There were not less than 4 hate motivated acts of vandalism registered in January: 2 against the Jehovah's Witnesses, 1 against a Baptist building and 1 neo-Nazi act. In the town of Volzhsky (Volgograd region), on the new year's eve, the buildings which belonged to Baptist church and to the Jehovah's Witnesses became subjects of arson attacks.

We didn't register any terrorist attack in January which could be attributed to the radical right-wing. Indeed, in Volgograd, Maxim Konobeyevskikh was detained as a suspect for sending threats to detonate property of some non-Slavs by SMS. However, later he disassociated himself from this crime and from having anything to do with radical nationalism.

In January, 2010, there were 2 guilty verdicts for violence with an acknowledged hate motive: in Nizhny Novgorod a group called National Socialist Worker's Party of Russia was doomed for several arson attacks (they got remarkably soft punishments: 6 out of the 9 convicts got suspended sentences); and in Moscow a group was convicted for attacks on people of :non-Slavic; appearance. In the latter case, however, the racist motive was acknowledged in the verdict against only one member of the group (hate motivated hooliganism, article 213 of the Criminal Code). The jury didn't consider evidenced the accusations under article 282 (hate propaganda) and that a murder was committed with a racist motive (article 105). In all, in January, 11 people were sentenced.

In January, 2010, there were not less than 5 guilty verdicts for xenophobic propaganda in Cheboksary, Pechora (Komi republic), Petrozavodsk, Krasnoyarsk and Tyumen against 6 people (including 3 of them with suspended sentences).

The Federal List of Extremist Materials was enlarged on January 12, 13 and 20. It contains now 474 entries.

The most high profile event to counteract xenophobia was the all-Russia action in memory of Stanislav Markelov and Anastassia Baburova on January 19, which took place in 13 cities. In Moscow, more than 1000 people took part in the antifascist rally.