April 2008. Results of the month

In April 2008, at least 24 racist and neo-Nazi attacks were recorded, resulting in 6 deaths and at least 38 injuries. Note that these statistics do not include victims of the mass brawl in the Tver region on April 5, since we are not sure about the nationalist motivation of its participants. In addition to Moscow, the attacks took place in Vladivostok, Kazan, Nizhny Novgorod, St. Petersburg, Penza, Ryazan and Stavropol.

Since the beginning of 2008, at least 211 people have become victims of hate crimes, 53 of them died. For comparison, during the same period in 2007, 236 people were injured, of whom 17 were killed. With a high degree of certainty, it can be argued that we are not dealing with a decrease in the number of attacks with their increased severity, but with the fact that against the background of an obviously increased severity of attacks less serious attacks than murders remain simply unknown.

April 20 was traditionally expected with particular concern - the Russian police were transferred to an enhanced mode of operation, in many educational institutions students were warned about the danger from neo-Nazis.

However, killings, attacks and less serious incidents on this day could not be avoided.

Thus, attacks by neo-Nazis were recorded on April 20 in at least 3 cities of Russia (St. Petersburg, Stavropol, Ryazan). As a result, 2 people died and at least 5 were injured. According to unconfirmed data, students of the Peoples' Friendship University of Russia in Moscow, a traditional object of attack by Russian skinheads, were also subjected to attacks.

Acts of vandalism were recorded in Moscow and the Moscow region - neo-Nazi graffiti appeared next to the memorial plaque to members of the Jewish Anti-Fascist Committee, and swastikas were painted on equipment from the Second World War in the city of Khimki. Twice the police of St. Petersburg stopped attempts to hang neo-Nazi banners in the city.

On the same day, the website of the Holocaust Center was hacked by neo-Nazis, the main page of which was replaced with images of swastikas.

In addition, April was marked by the appearance on the Internet of a list of "enemies of the Russian people", which included both statesmen and public figures. It differed from many previous versions of such lists in that, in addition to names and organizations, it contained home addresses and phone numbers of people. And such a list poses a real threat to the security of both those included in the list and everyone who lives at the specified addresses.

In April 2008, there was no particular activity in the criminal prosecution of the ultra-right. We are aware of only one conviction of racist violence, which was handed down in the Sverdlovsk region for an attack on a Kyrgyz.

And only two sentences were handed down in April for racist propaganda - in the Samara region, a publisher of a neo-pagan almanac and a distributor of anti-Chechen leaflets were convicted. Both convicts were sentenced to fines, which, in our opinion, is quite an adequate punishment for such a crime.