Racism and Xenophobia in April 2018

In April 2018, we learned about only one victim of xenophobic violence, which occurred in Moscow.

In total since the start of the year at least eight people were victims of racially motivated violence, of which three were killed. These attacks took place in four regions of Russia: Moscow, St. Petersburg, and the Kursk and Moscow regions. (Note that these statistics do not include the victims of incidents that took place in the republics of the Northern Caucasus and Crimea).

In April, we found out about three ideologically motivated crimes against property. In total since the start of the year, at least six incidents took place in six Russian regions.

Sergei Zakharov and the “Muse of the Unruly” festival at the Sakharov Center received threats on the Internet. On the VKontakte pages of the Russian Imperial Movement (RID) and the Veterans of Novorossiya a text appeared with a call to go to the Sakharov Center on May 1 by 10 am “for a preventative conversation.” Nationalists are outraged by “the creations of Sergei Zakharov, a Kiev character, who is distinguished by anti-Russian and anti-DNR positions.”

In general, the public activity of neo-Nazi groups was quite low in April.

On April 22 in Kaliningrad, nationalists along with representatives of the various opposition groups came together to protest political repression and “for the liberation of political prisoners in Russia.” Of the nationalists, Alexander Ivanov (the leader of the local branch of the Russian All-People’s Union (ROS) and the head of the For Rus’ movement) as well as several young people with imperial flags participated in the demonstration.

In addition, on April 23 in front of the Latvian Embassy in Moscow, the National Conservative Movement and the First Russian Human Rights Center held a picket “In Defense of Russians,” more specifically, in support of the activist Alexander Gaponenko, who was arrested in Riga.

We did not learn of any convictions made in April for racially motivated violence. In total since the start of the year there were three convictions for violent crimes that the courts determined were motivated by hate in St. Petersburg and the Kemerovo and Rostov regions. In these proceedings, 10 people were sentenced.

In April, 16 convictions were made for public statements against 16 individuals in 15 regions of the country (these statistics do not include the convictions that we consider clearly inappropriate). Among the convicted nationalists in April were activists from the Artpodgotovka movement, Oleg Detkin from Kazan and Oksana Pokhodun from Krasnoyarsk.

In total since the start of the year, at least 69 convictions were made for racist or other ultra-right-wing statements in which 69 people from 40 regions were sentenced.

The Federal List of Extremist Materials was updated twice in April (on April 12 and 27, respectively). Items 4418-4423 were added, which included ultra-right-wing videos and songs, which were described without publication data.

In April, the Artpodgotovka movement was added to the Federal List of Extremist Organizations, the decision was issued by the Krasnoyarsk Territorial Court in October 26, 2017.

In total the Federal List of Extremist Organizations includes 64 such organizations (not counting the 27 groups that were recognized as terrorist organizations), whose activity was banned by court proceedings and whose continuation is punishable according to Article 282.2 of the Criminal Code.