Russian Nationalism and Xenophobia in August 2023

The following is our monthly review of instances of xenophobia and radical nationalism, along with any government countermeasures, for August 2023.

In August 2023, we recorded twelve hate-motivated attacks. One of those targeted – a Gabonese graduate student in Yekaterinburg – was killed by stabbing in a cafe; a suspect was detained.

On August 21 in Rostov-on-Don, a group of ultra-right activists stormed an antifascist concert at a bar: about fifteen people in medical masks attacked attendees, brandishing traumatic guns and firecrackers. There were reports of a shot fired from a rocket launcher. After being rebuffed, the attackers fled, and there were no reports of casualties.

Since the beginning of the year in total, according to our monitoring, no fewer than 59 individuals across Russia have suffered in hate-motivated attacks. We have also recorded one murder (as noted above) and three serious death threats.

This August also saw one act of xenophobic vandalism: in Yekaterinburg, an impromptu memorial at the site of the death of the murdered Gabonese graduate student was desecrated. Since the beginning of the year, we have become aware of 11 acts of xenophobic vandalism.

From August 19 to 27, the Movement of Nationalists and the Pamyat National-Patriotic Front, as well as the Telegram channels NatsDem and Our Way, held the traditional ultra-right “Days of Heroes” event, timed to coincide with the anniversary of the Tambov Rebellion (an anti-Bolshevik peasant uprising during the Russian Civil War). In addition to Moscow and St. Petersburg, ultra-right activists laid flowers at monuments, and campaigns were held, in several cities: Veliky Novgorod, Vyatka, Kotlas, Nizhny Novgorod, Pushchino, Samara, Sergiev Posad and Syktyvkar. Parallel events were also held in Ukraine and Lithuania.

Russian nationalists had varying reactions to the news of the death in a plane crash of PMC Wagner head Yevgeny Prigozhin. Igor Strelkov called the deceased not only “a personal enemy, but also, by and large, an enemy of Russia,” while also considering his death to be clear evidence of “further deepening of unrest in Russia.” According to Strelkov, Prigozhin should have been “tried, not eliminated.” Strelkov suggested that Prigozhin’s death could represent a “cleansing of key witnesses,” while “personal revenge by high-ranking military men” was also alleged to be possible, but unlikely.

Andrei Afanasiev of the National Democratic Party (NDP) assessed Prigozhin's death to be “at least some kind of retribution… for the murderers of Bednov, Mozgovoy, Igor ‘Bereg,’ 10 Il-22 pilots and an unknown number of dead by the Wagnerites.”

The leader of the Tsargrad movement, Konstantin Malofeev, noted the merits of the deceased in creating the “legend of PMC Wagner, which is recognized on all continents,” and believed that Prigozhin was killed either by Kyiv or Western intelligence services.

Dmitry Bastrakov, editor-in-chief of the Black Hundred publishing house, called those killed on the plane “controversial,” but “great,” blamed the Russian president for their deaths, and added that during Prigozhin’s aborted mutiny, “we were in the balance of a military coup and civil war” and “ almost lost Russia.”

Meanwhile, Ivan Otrakovsky expressed the belief that Prigozhin is most likely alive and will appear “maybe in three days, maybe in six months”: “It’s possible that Utkin died. That Prigozhin was sacrificed is hard to believe. He has a different role.” Otrakovsky called the explosion of the plane “some kind of operation,” similar to the “rebellion” with the aim of “identifying among the brave” Wagnerites “those who are dissatisfied with the situation.”

Men's State leader Vladislav Pozdnyakov called the deceased a hero of Russia, while also adhering to the view that Prigozhin is alive.

In August, the extreme right was outraged by the attack on a jogging 21-year-old woman in Nakhabino, near Moscow, by a native of Tajikistan. The assailant asserted that he had attacked her because she was “inappropriately dressed” in long sports shorts and a T-shirt. The so-called Russian Community immediately intervened in the event and, accompanied by the girl and her husband, began an operational campaign in the area. Activists began to take video recordings from security cameras in local shops. The victim filmed a video for the Community, where she spoke about the incident, standing next to extreme right activists. It is unclear whether this had any impact on the course of the investigation. The attacker was arrested shortly thereafter.

The Russian Community continued their other, already traditional, anti-migrant speeches. Thus, Community activists, together with competitive MMA fighter and White Rex tournament participant Maxim Divnich, identified teenage robbers from Surgut and passed information about them to law enforcement agencies. In a related video produced by the Community, the underage alleged robbers with “non-Slavic appearance” are referred to as an “ethnic gang.”

Divnich also took part in another “educational action,” on August 9. Together with a group of far-right activists, Divnich forced prominent stand-up comedian Sergei Orlov to apologize for a joke about Russian Orthodox culture lessons in schools.

An unexpected event was the news in August about the detention in Finland of Yan Petrovsky (Voislav Torden), a leader of the neo-Nazi sabotage and assault reconnaissance group Rusich, which was part of PMC Wagner. Rusich announced that it would cease "performing any combat missions” in Ukraine since, according to the group, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs had not assisted Petrovsky following his arrest. Neo-Nazi Mikhail (Pitbull) Turkanov, the commander of a unit of Espanyola (a battalion of football hooligans fighting in Ukraine), recorded a video in defense of Petrovsky with threats against Finland in case it was planning to extradite “his comrade” to Ukraine.

We are aware of two convictions for xenophobic violence handed down in August, against eight people. In particular, the Sergiev Posad City Court of the Moscow Region sentenced six neo-Nazis – Semyon Tokmakov, Andrei Kail, Alexei Gudilin, Pavel Khrulyov, Alexander Lysenkov and Maxim Khotulyov – to long prison terms for a series of murders of migrants in 2003. The criminal case against their “comrade-in-arms” and accomplice, Maxim (Tesak) Martsinkevich, had been dismissed on February 13, 2023 by the Mytishchi City Court of the Moscow Region in connection with Martsinkevich's death in detention.

Since the beginning of this year, we have recorded 15 convictions, of 32 people, on the basis of xenophobic violence; and five convictions, of seven people, for xenophobic vandalism. (Here and elsewhere, we present data without taking into account court decisions that we consider to be patently improper).

In total for August, according to our data, six people were convicted for participation in extremist communities and organizations. One of them was a member of the Citizens of the USSR movement, while the rest were convicted for involvement in the AUE subculture. In total, since the beginning of the year, we have become aware of 55 such sentences, issued against 88 people.

We also recorded nine convictions for violent public statements, against 10 people.

Four people were convicted under Article 205.2 of the Criminal Code (CC) (propaganda of terrorism) for calls for violent actions and threats against government and security officials, as well as calls to bomb the FSB headquarters in Moscow. All of these calls and threats were made on either VKontakte or YouTube.

Among those convicted in August was the prisoner Kirill Banetsky, who law enforcement allege, in February 2022, justified “the activities of a banned terrorist organization and persuaded other prisoners to go abroad to participate in hostilities on the side of this organization” – while already serving a prison term. The organization in question is not entirely clear, though a number of media report that Banetsky was attempting to recruit other inmates to ISIS. However, he was serving a term under Part 2 of Article 208 CC (participation in an illegal armed formation abroad) not for membership in an Islamist organization, but on the side of the banned Ukrainian extreme-right group Right Sector. Of course, it is possible that he converted to Islam in prison.

One person was sanctioned under a combination of Articles 205.2 and 280 CC (public calls for extremist activity) for posting leaflets calling for violence against the authorities, and a link to the Telegram channel of an unnamed banned organization.

Another person was convicted under a combination of Articles 205.2, 280 and 212 (calls for rioting) CC for his comments on VKontakte calling for “active action against the current governmental system.”

Two teenagers were convicted under a combination of Articles 280 and 213 (hooliganism) CC for shouting xenophobic statements in the street, and attacking a passerby who made a remark to them.

One person was convicted under Article 282.4 CC (repeated propaganda or public demonstration of Nazi paraphernalia or symbols, or paraphernalia or symbols of extremist organizations) for repeatedly demonstrating their own Nazi tattoo.

And finally, one person was punished under Article 354.1 CC (rehabilitation of Nazism) for comments posted online under the nickname "Bronislav Kaminsky" (the name of a Russian SS collaborator who led a brigade bearing his surname) denying the Holocaust, expressing approval of crimes established by the Nuremberg Tribunal, and so on.

We would also note the news about searches on August 24 in Moscow and St. Petersburg in relation to a criminal case over publications in the Telegram channel of the neo-Nazi group Belaya Mast (White Suit). Members of the group, who had been convicted and released, use neo-Nazi symbols on their Telegram channel and raise money to help members of the extreme right who have been convicted of violent hate crimes.

A case under Part 2 of Article 282 and Part 2 of Article 280 CC had been initiated on November 11, 2022, on the basis of Belaya Mast's Telegram publications from January 2019. On July 5, 2023, another case was opened, this time under Part 2 of Article 205.2 CC, on the basis of February 2020 Belaya Mast posts in the Moscow Mutual Aid Group on VKontakte, which prosecutors categorized as “calls for terrorist activities.”

During a search on August 24 in Moscow, Veronika Korolyova was arrested. Korolyova is the wife of Nikolai (Nikola) Korolyov, the Russian Nazi skinhead cult hero who is serving a life sentence for the 2006 bombing of the Cherkizovsky Market in Moscow. Belaya Mast leader Artyom Zepp was also arrested. In St. Petersburg, group administrator Mark Filippov, who had previously served time for the brutal murder of a comrade-in-arms, was arrested as well.

In total, since the beginning of the year, we have become aware of 151 sentences issued for public statements, against 167 people (not counting clearly improper ones).

In August, we learned of eight individuals fined under Article 20.29 of the Administrative Code (CAO) (production and distribution of extremist materials) for sharing xenophobic materials from the Federal List of Extremist Materials via social media. Some representative examples include the ultra-right video “Everyone Should Know,” and Yevgeny Skvoreshnev’s poem “Be Russian!” Since the beginning of the year, according to our monitoring data, 64 people have been punished under this article of the Code of Administrative Offenses.

At least 53 people were punished under Article 20.3 CAO (propaganda and public display of Nazi symbols and symbols of banned organizations) this month. Twenty-eight people, including 22 prison inmates, showed others their own swastika tattoos, while one shouted neo-Nazi chants. Others published Nazi symbols and symbols of banned organizations (such as ISIS or the Ukrainian Right Sector) on VKontakte, Odnoklassniki, Telegram and Instagram. Ten people were placed under administrative arrest, and the rest were fined. In total, since the beginning of the year, we have recorded 489 cases of sentencing for such offenses.

No fewer than 10 people were fined in August for radical statements under Article 20.3.1 CAO (incitement to hatred). One of them made xenophobic insults in a hotel, and the rest posted materials on social networks targeting natives of Central Asia and the Caucasus, as well as unnamed social groups. In total, since the beginning of the year, we know of 154 such court decisions.

It is worth noting that 74-year-old retired GRU colonel Vladimir Kvachkov, a well-known nationalist politician, was fined under Part 1 of Article 20.3.3 CAO (discrediting the use of the Russian armed forces). The offense was made up of three posts from 2022, with photos and text, in an Odnoklassniki group bearing Kvachkov’s name. We note that, from our point of view, the recently-implemented legislative ban on discrediting the actions of the Russian armed forces and government agencies abroad constitutes an unjustified restriction of the right to freedom of expression, designed to suppress criticism of the political course of the authorities. Therefore, we consider it unlawful to prosecute a defendant under the relevant articles in cases where we are talking about statements that do not contain direct calls for violence. We do not know which publications in the group came to the attention of law enforcement.

The Federal List of Extremist Materials was updated five times, on August 3, 4, 10, 11 and 31, to account for new entries 5357–5372. The list was supplemented by materials from the banned Initiative Group of the Referendum “For Responsible Power” (IGPR “ZOV”), a racist song by the group Hammer of the Motherland and video recordings of sermons by the former Schema-Hegumen Sergius (Nikolai Romanov). However, it also included a declaration of independence of Kalmykia drawn up by members of the Congress of the Oirat-Kalmyk people, and an article entitled He Will not Stop Until They Stop Him by Irina Grebnyova, the bans of which we consider improper.