Daily Journal:

Apparently, Alexander Chekalin’s message refers to the so-called registered crimes in the cases filed. And there are two problems here. Firstly, there is the problem of a real increase in crime. The number of violent incidents is growing by an average of 20 percent per year, and this proportion has not changed for 4 years. Now our center is summing up the results, and, according to our data, in 2007 the number of victims was 12 percent more than in the previous year. But this figure will now begin to change rapidly - information about other incidents will be received. This is common practice. But we already know for sure about this 12 percent growth. This is one moment.

The second point is the registration or non-registration of such crimes. Indeed, this is a serious, positive step - our police have begun to register more such crimes. Although the acceptance of such applications is always accompanied by some difficulties. Suffice it to recall the story of the attack on Sayana Mongush, when the St. Petersburg metro police refused to accept her statement, simply because the policeman did not want to work. Just the other day we became aware of an attack where a person’s statement was accepted, but very serious efforts were made to make this happen. At the same time, it should be noted that the person clearly did not suffer very much, since he could talk to the police.

But the problem is not how many have registered. These are, of course, wonderful numbers - one hundred, three hundred, three hundred and fifty, etc. The whole question is how many make it to court. But it’s not just hundreds that go to court; it’s only two dozen crimes a year. In 2006, the peak year, there were three dozen, in the past there were 24 convictions. For violence. This is one of those 300 or 400 crimes registered by the police. Such cases are closed, fall apart in the courts, and are reclassified as domestic reasons. Those. in reality, while the number of applications is growing, the resulting number of convictions is not growing. This means that there is no progress in legal prosecution and in legal recognition of the racist motives of the crime. It was observed until 2006, when we recorded the maximum number of sentences - 33. Agree, this looks very strange. Every year 600 people are beaten, 60-70 are killed - and only 33 sentences. Last year there were 24. So there is no real progress in cracking down on violence. And the growth dynamics of violent crimes motivated by xenophobia are stable and unchanged. The only frightening thing is that nothing affects the activity of neo-Nazis.