Russian Nationalism and Xenophobia in February 2022

The following is our monthly review of instances of xenophobia and radical nationalism, along with any government countermeasures, for February 2022.

In February 2022, according to data collected and reviewed by SOVA Center, two people suffered from xenophobically-motivated violence.

Public ultra-right activity was negligible this month, though anti-migrant rhetoric continued to gain momentum online. The Nationalists’ Movement conducted a few actions where they stuck "Russia Without Putin and Replacement Migration" stickers around.

We are aware of only one ruling (*) in February delivered on the basis of xenophobically-motivated violence. In St. Petersburg, the court sentenced one Evgeny Ludanov to six months in a strict-regime colony for attacking a homeless person.

We would also note the conviction of one Andrei Smagin for his attempt to bomb a migrants' hostel in Tambov. He was charged under Article 205.3 (training for the purposes of carrying out a terrorist act), Part 1 of Article 23 and Part 1 of Article 205 (preparation for carrying out a terrorist act), Part 1 of Article 223.1 (illegal manufacture of explosive materials) and Part 1 of Article 222.1 (illegal acquisition, storage, transport and bearing of explosive materials and illegal transport and bearing of explosive devices) of the Criminal Code to eight years in a maximum-security penal colony.

Some 14 people were convicted of xenophobic statements in February 2022. Four of them were charged under Article 280 of the Criminal Code (public calls to extremist activity); three were charged for social media posts with calls to attack Roma people or law enforcement officers; one was charged for calling, from his prison cell, for attacks on police. Four individuals were charged under Article 205.2 of the Criminal Code (public calls to terrorism): one, a prison colony inmate, attempted to recruit other convicts to join ISIS; the others posted various calls for terrorist activity to social media. Two individuals were convicted on a combined charge under both articles over social media posts calling for attacks on "certain ethnic groups." One person was convicted under Part 1 of Article 354.1 of the Criminal Code (rehabilitation of Nazism) over a social media post in which they "publicly denied facts established by the verdict of the International Military Tribunal for judgment and punishment of the primary military criminals of the European Axis countries." Another individual was convicted under Article 282 of the Criminal Code (incitement to hatred) over calls for attacks on members of a "social group" – the police.

Since the beginning of the year to date, xenophobic statements have been the basis of convictions of no fewer than 24 individuals in 17 regions of Russia.

The Federal List of Extremist Materials was updated once, on February 8, to account for new entries 5157–5159. These are a song by the metal group "DIV" featuring calls to kill migrants, a song entitled "A Dense Sieg," and a song by the group Electric Partisans.

No fewer than eight people were sanctioned under Article 20.3.1 of the Code of Administrative Offenses (incitement to hatred). Seven of these individuals were fined over social media comments and posts inciting hatred against Ukrainians, Central Asians, people from the Caucasus and representatives of other ethnic groups, as well as children. One person, a delegate of the Kurultai of the Crimean Tatar Nation, former head of the State Committee on Nationalities and Deported Citizens of the Autonomous Crimean Region, Edem Dudakov, was arrested for a social media post on “aggressive vatniks” on Facebook, in which experts identified linguistic and psychological signs of "incitement of enmity and hatred against ethnically Russian people."

We are aware that four people were fined under Article 20.29 of the Code of Administrative Offenses (manufacture and distribution of banned materials) over re-posts on social media.

A minimum of eight people were sanctioned under Article 20.3 of the Code of Administrative Offenses (propaganda and public demonstration of Nazi symbols and symbols of banned organizations). One of them, a prison colony inmate, demonstrated his own swastika tattoo. The others all posted Nazi symbols to social media. All were fined, except for the National Bolshevik Alexander Rybkin, who was detained for 15 days over a photo posted to VKontakte. The photo showed a tattoo with the Algiz rune, which is popular among neo-Nazis. National Bolsheviks argued that the tattoo is of a logo of the British group Death in June (which itself has for decades been subject to accusations of Nazi sympathy). Rybkin had been detained previously in connection with a logo of the unregistered party "Eduard Limonov's Other Russia," which was interpreted as a symbol of the banned National Bolsheviks’ party.

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(*) Data about criminal and administrative cases are reported without reference to rulings that we consider to be patently improper.