​Racism and Xenophobia in August 2014

The following is our monthly review of instances of xenophobia and radical nationalism, along with any government countermeasures, for the month of August 2014. The review is based on material gathered by Sova Center in the course of our daily monitoring.

In August, at least three people fell victim to racist and neo-Nazi violence, in the Krasnoyarsk and the Tomsk regions. Since the beginning of the year, 13 people have been killed as a result of racist violence, with 74 more injured and one receiving a serious death threat. Such incidents have been recorded in 21 regions of Russia.

The only action of some importance organized by the far-right in August was one with the slogan “For Donetsk Russia”. This was held in Moscow on the August 2 by the Battle for Donbass public movement. The movement includes the Right Conservative Alliance, the Eurasian Youth Union, the Right Platform. The action was coordinated by the Right Conservative Alliance member Alexey Zhivov and attended by the activists of Konstantin Krylov’s National-Democratic Party (NDP), Alexander Dugin, Egor Kholmogorov, Roman Antonovsky of the Right Conservative Alliance and Valentin Tabachny (early suspected of posting xenophobic materials on VKontakte social network site).

The far-right went on with their anti-immigrant raids. For instance, on August 10, the National-Socialist Initiative (NSI) held a “Russian sweep” with the movement’s leader Dmitry Bobrov and several others swept over the city market places checking immigrant workers’ documents.

In August, we only recorded one incident of xenophobic vandalism. In Korolyov near Moscow a standing cross was desecrated. Since the beginning of the year, we could count no fewer than 29 targets of xenophobic vandalism in 24 Russian regions.

We are unaware of any guilty verdicts for racist violence issued in August 2014. Since the beginning of the year, at least 12 such verdicts have been issued with 30 people convicted in 10 Russian regions.

In August 2014, one guilty verdict was issued for xenophobic vandalism. In Surgut a vandal was sentenced under Part 2 of Article 2014 of Criminal Code to two months of arrest for making xenophobic inscriptions in a lift cabin. That is the only verdict for xenophobic vandalism issued this year we are aware of.

In August 2014, at least 12 verdicts convicted 12 people in 12 Russian regions for xenophobic propaganda. The sentence against Maxim (Tesak) Martsinkevich issued by Kuntsevsky District Court on August 15. Tesak (the nickname means “backsword”, and is sometimes translated as "Slasher") was sentenced to five years of strict regime penal colony for posting three videos on VKontakte (“Kick the churki out! Pre-election campaign!”, “Tesak on the movie Stalingrad and the situation in Biryulyovo”, and “Tesak on the movie Okolofutbola” (“Near Football”).

Since the beginning of 2014, 89 verdicts have been issued against as much people in 43 regions of Russia.

The Federal List of Extremist Materials was updated six times in August. Entries 2342-2424 were added. The additions include various xenophobic materials, mostly videos from Vkontakte, and some more: two songs by Korroziya metalla thrash metal group, a leaflet found at the bus stop in Abakan, Platsdarm and Ataka far-right websites, books by Hans Günther and Joseph Goebbels, William Powell’s famous Anarchist Cookbook, a brochure by neo-pagan ideologist Alexey (Dobroslav) Dobrovolsky, an article from Svoimi imenami newspaper and an article by imprisoned radical publicist Boris Stomakhin. A number of Islamic materials from some Hizb ut-Tahrir texts to militant Jihadist Imarat Kavkaz videos and Kavkaz-tsentr mirrors were also included. So was a site copying the Federal List itself but containing links to the banned materials. In August, at least two materials were added twice on the list owing to court sentences issued simultaneously, a video containing a text by American racist leader David Lane and a video entitled Mujahids are invincible, you, dogs, realize this.

In late August, the Federal List of Extremist Organizations published by the Ministry of Justice grew up to 36 items (the organizations banned as terrorist not included). Muslim religious organization of the village of Borovsky, the Tyumen region banned by the Tyumen Regional Court on May 6, 2014 and Russian Native Community of Schyolkovsky district, the Moscow region deemed extremist by the Schyolkovsky City Court of the Moscow region were added on the list.