Racism and Xenophobia in September 2011

One individual, a native of Tajikistan, was killed in the Moscow Region this month.

In all, 16 people have been killed in racist violence since the beginning of this year, with 90 others injured and seven people receiving death threats. The attacks were recorded in 25 regions of Russia, with Moscow (seven killed, 19 injured) remaining the main center of violence; other problem areas include the greater Moscow Region (four killed, seven injured) and St. Petersburg (three killed, 22 injured). The main targets of violence continue to be natives of the Central Asian republics (nine killed, 19 injured), members and representatives of leftist youth groups (16 injured), members and representative of various non-Orthodox religious groups (16 injured), natives of the Caucasus (six killed, nine injured), and people of African descent (12 attacked).

This month also saw no fewer than nine acts of neo-Nazi vandalism. The main targets of attack were Protestant objects and buildings, buildings associated with the Jehovah’s Witnesses (in four cases), Eastern Orthodox sites (two cases), and Muslim sites (one case.). As such, year-to-date, we have recorded at least 61 acts of xenophobic vandalism in 26 regions of the country.

Three September 2011 convictions of racist violence accounted for the hate motive; they were heard in the Astrakhan, Irkutsk, and Nizhny Novgorod regions. Seven people were convicted to various prison terms. The two most significant rulings regarded neo-Nazi gangs in Nizhny Novgorod and Irkutsk, with the latter convicting well-known neo-Nazi Evgeny Panov (“Boomer”), who has been convicted of violent, hate-motivated crimes on numerous occasions in the past.

Since the beginning of the year, at least 43 convictions for crimes of racist violence have accounted for the hate motive. Such cases have convicted 165 people in 25 regions of the Russian Federation: eight received life imprisonment; 92, various prison terms; 53, suspended sentences; two to hard labor and one detention in a disciplinary unit of the Army. Nine were exempt from punishment and two were acquitted.

Another four sentences were given this month in cases treating acts of xenophobic propaganda. Four people received sentences, in the Astrakhan, Saratov and Tyumen regions and the Komi Republic. As such, 51 sentences for xenophobic propaganda have been imposed on 55 individuals in 34 regions of the country so far this year.

In regards to convictions stemming from the organization of an extremist group, the leader of the Northern Brotherhood, Anton Mukhachev (“Fly”), was sentenced to nine years in prison in a closed trial. This is the third such sentence this year, the others being the August conviction of another Northern Brotherhood leader, Oleg Troshkin, and the sentencing of the Protvino branch of the Movement Against Illegal Immigration (DPNI) leader based on a decision that referred to the article barring the organization of an extremist group.

The Federal List of Extremist Materials was updated twice, on September 14 and 26; entries 967 through 979 were added. The new entries contain anti-Semitic books from the publishing houses “Russkaya Pravda,” “Russki Vestnik” and “Vityaz.” Other new additions include well-known far-right pamphlets entitled “Grin” and “The Smell of Death,” as well as the website of the National Bolshevik Party, Jehovah’s Witnesses texts, and a previously-banned book entitled “The Slavic Veda.” The entries are riddled with typographical errors.

The Federal List of Extremist Organizations now includes 26 groups due to the addition of the “Old Russian Church of Orthodox Old Believer-Inglists,” a relatively new pseudo-pagan religious movement. The group was deemed extremist in a decision by the Maykop District Court of the Republic of Adygea in December 2008, and is now included in the list on the website of the Ministry of Justice of the Russian Federation. The list does not include groups that have been deemed terrorist.