Racism and Xenophobia in January 2015

The following is our review of racism and xenophobia in Russia during the first month of 2015. The data we report are collected in the course of Sova Center’s daily monitoring.

This month, at least three people were targeted in racist and xenophobic attacks. We also recorded no fewer than four acts of vandalism that could be classified as motivated by hatred or nationalist ideology.

The most significant public event in terms of racism and xenophobia this month was the January 24 People's Assembly in Mineralnye Vody. The impetus for the gathering was the murder of contractor Dmitry Sidorenko by ethnic Armenians during a brawl at a local cafe. The rally, which had been announced by Aleksandr Amelin (of Russian Revival), Vitaly Shishkin (of Right-Wing for European Development), and local nationalist activist Oksana (Vyolva) Borisova, brought together about 150 people; they attempted to block a federal highway twice, but eventually dispersed peacefully.

There were a few other notable nationalist events this month. One was on January 5, where the Tula Region National Union held a rally in support of an arrested nationalist Anton Baranov. About 30 people attended. On January 18, in Syktyvkar, the Northern Frontier held a March of Right-Wing Youth. About 30 people participated, flying flags and shouting anti-migrant slogans and football fans’ chants.

On January 1, a few cities across the country saw New Year’s editions of the Russian Jogs. In Moscow, the run began at the Christ the Savior Church, with about 50 people participating. In Saint Petersburg, there were two such runs – between 10 and 30 people participated. Other cities where the runs were held include Krasnoyarsk, Omsk, Tolyatti, Tomsk, Ufa, Yaroslavl and a few other cities, but no event drew more than 40 people.

Ultra-right-wing activists continue to participate as militants in the separatist war in Ukraine. For example, at the beginning of January, journalists identified Alexey (“Kolovrat”) Kozhemyakin, a known Komi Republic neo-Nazi, among soldiers in the so-called Azov Battalion in Ukraine.

January 2015 saw at least two convictions for racist violence, against two individuals in Moscow and the Sverdlovsk region. One of them, a member of the group Folksturm, the 26-year-old Ilya Dorokhov, had been a fugitive until December 2014 and was detained by Interior Ministry troops in Saint Petersburg. The Sverdlovsk Regional Court sentenced him to ten years in prison.

There were at least ten convictions for xenophobic propaganda, in nine regions of the country, this month. Ten people were convicted.

Meanwhile, the Federal List of Extremist Materials was updated three times (on January 16, 22, and 26). It now includes 2,588 entries. Among the new additions are publications by Islamist militants (including the entire website sodiqlar.info) and the profiles of neo-Nazi skinheads on Vkontakte, the Russian social network, as well as pagan publications and books by Maksim Martsinkevich.

The Federal List of Extremist Organizations, which is published on the Ministry of Justice website, was updated to include five ultra-right-wing Ukrainian groups: Right Sector, the UNA-UNSO, the UPA, the Trident of Stepan Bandera, and Brotherhood. The Supreme Court of the Russian Federation declared them all to be extremist in a November 17, 2014 ruling. As such, as of January 30, 2015, the list now includes 41 organizations banned by an injunction, and whose continued activities would violate Article 282.2 of the Criminal Code (organizational activities of an extremist organization).

On January 19, activists in twelve Russian cities held annual marches in memory of Stanislav Markelov, the human rights lawyer, and Anastasia Baburova, the Novaya Gazeta journalist, who were both murdered by a neo-Nazi as they left a press conference on the date in 2009. In Moscow, the rally brought together a slightly smaller number of people than usual – by Sova Center’s estimate, between 500 and 540 people attended. Right-wing activists from the National Liberation Movement and God’s Will attempted to prevent the action, and according to police, ten of them were detained.

About 200 people came to the march in Saint Petersburg, which began on Vasilievsky Island and was held with the city’s consent for the first time in a few years. After previously having been denied permission to hold the march, Saint Petersburg activists had challenged the refusal, taking it all the way to the Supreme Court. There was a press conference the same day on the difficulties of securing permission to march.