Russian Nationalism and Xenophobia in June 2022

We are aware of four individuals who were targeted in ideologically motivated violent attacks this month, in the Moscow and Chelyabinsk regions. Since the beginning of the year, we have recorded incidents in which a total of 13 people have suffered from such attacks, along with one other individual, who received a murder threat.

One incident on June 12 in St. Petersburg drew some media attention: Afro-Russian model Stella Kaziyake was prevented from exiting a city bus by another passenger, who berated her with xenophobic insults. The verbal assault did not evolve into physical violence, however, thanks to the defense of another passenger. The assailant, Nikita Ustyuzhanin, was detained and sentenced to a week in jail plus 50 hours of community service under Article 20.3.1 of the Code of Administrative Offenses (inciting hatred or enmity, as well as humiliation of human dignity) and Part 1 of Article 20.1 of the same code (petty hooliganism).

We also recorded two antisemitic incidents this month: broken glass on the tombstone of nineteenth-century Jewish preacher Israel Salanter at the old Jewish cemetery in Kaliningrad, and damage to the Star of David on the monument to Jewish prisoners of the ghetto at the Rzhev Memorial Cemetery. A Christian burial site was also desecrated at a rural cemetery in the Aktanysh district of Tatarstan. Since the beginning of the year, we are aware of no fewer than 14 acts of xenophobically-motivated vandalism.

Ultra-right public activity was negligible in June.

Meanwhile we know of only one ruling issued (*) in June related to xenophobically-motivated violence, as well as vandalism, against the leader and two members of the ultra-right society Astrakhan National Movement.

Aside from that, on June 6 Moscow's Basmanny District Court placed under arrest Timofei Mokiy, the sixth suspect in the case regarding the conspiracy to assassinate state television propagandist Vladimir Solovyov. Mokiy had been on the run for a month and a half, and during that time had managed to set fire to a number of military enlistment offices.

Since the beginning of 2022, we have become aware of court rulings against a total of five individuals on the basis of xenophobic violence, issued by courts in St. Petersburg, Astrakhan and Tula; and of cases in respect of six individuals convicted for xenophobic vandalism, in Astrakhan, Chita and Novomoskovsk.

Meanwhile, 10 people were convicted this month of participation in the activities of extremist and terrorist organizations. These include the members of the Astrakhan National Movement, mentioned above, as well as seven others who where charged with participation variously in AUE, the Ukrainian Right Sector, ISIS, and the Islamist Takfir wal-Hijra and Hayat Tahrir ash-Sham.

In all, this year we have recorded 23 rulings against 43 individuals on the basis of participation in the activities of extremist and terrorist societies and organizations.

We also have information regarding 14 individuals convicted on the basis of xenophobic statements this June. Two were convicted under Article 282 of the Criminal Code (incitement to hatred) for repeat posting of xenophobic commentary on social media. Another eight were convicted under Article 280 of the Criminal Code (public calls to extremist activity) for the social-media posting of calls to attack Black people, natives of Central Asia, and employees of law enforcement agencies. One person was convicted under Part 2 of Article 205.2 of the Criminal Code (calls to terrorist activity, published online) for commentary featuring calls for the "execution of terrorist acts, violent actions against groups of people identified on the basis of their profession." One other person, an adherent of ISIS, was convicted on a charge combining both laws. Meanwhile two other ISIS supporters were sentenced to imprisonment under Article 280 of the Criminal Code in combination with a number of terrorist criminal articles.

Since the beginning of this year, we have recorded no fewer than 81 rulings made on the basis of statements, against 84 individual people.

The Federal List of Extremist Materials was updated twice, on June 9 and 23, to account for new entries 5288-5291. These include a Russian translation of a pamphlet by Joseph Goebbels, a number of materials from a Telegram channel criticizing Ramzan Kadyrov, an anti-Semitic video and another song by the group The Ensemble of Christ the Savior and the Crude Mother Earth.

The Federal List of Extremist Organizations was also updated, to include new entry 91: the ultra-right association NORD (People’s Association of Russian Movement), which had been deemed extremist by decision of the Nizhny Novgorod Regional Court on April 19, 2022. Meanwhile, the Leninsky District Court of Perm deemed the local ultra-right association Sturm Project extremist this month as well.

A minimum of five people were fined under Article 20.29 of the Code of Administrative Offenses (manufacture and dissemination of banned materials) for sharing of materials listed in the Federal List of Extremist Materials.

Also, no fewer than 12 people were fined under Article 20.3.1 of the Code of Administrative Offenses (incitement to hatred) for posting via social media, as well as in messenger services, of texts and voice messages aimed at inciting hatred against natives of the Caucasus and Central Asia, Blacks, Jews, Muslims, communists and police.

Finally, at least 36 individuals 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 drew a swastika on the wall of an underpass, another put a swastika sticker on a car window, a third wore a jacket featuring Nazi symbols, and a fourth had a rosary with a swastika. Another 12 (three of them being colony inmates) demonstrated their own tattoos of Nazi symbols in public. The rest published Nazi symbols on social media. Ten were punished with administrative arrest, while the others were fined.

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