Conference "Ways to prevent xenophobia and extremism among youth in St. Petersburg"

On May 16, 2008, the conference "Ways to prevent xenophobia and extremism among young people in St. Petersburg" was held in St. Petersburg. During the event, it was stated that 14-18-year-old teenagers commit 90% of crimes "on ethnic grounds."

According to Andrey Lavrenko, head of the Investigative Committee of the Prosecutor's Office of the Russian Federation for St. Petersburg, in 2007 there were 19 such crimes, in 2008 there were already 10. The perpetrators "positioned themselves as activists of the Slavic Union, DPNI, Slavic Community" , as well as members of skinhead groups" .

The main reason for the involvement of teenagers in extremist and nationalist groups, the head of the Investigative Committee of the Prosecutor's Office of the Russian Federation for St. Petersburg, considers "the availability of information of a nationalist nature", mainly via the Internet. During the searches, a huge amount of nationalist, extremist literature is seized, as well as nationalist paraphernalia, video and audio recordings that promote racial and national intolerance.

At the conference, it was stated that about 60 teenagers "are in the dock on charges of crimes on extremist and nationalist grounds . "

According to Vyacheslav Kovalenko, head of the Department for organizing the activities of district police officers and units of the PND MOB of the Main Internal Affairs Directorate for St. Petersburg and the Leningrad Region, in 2007 law enforcement agencies identified 433 minors who identified themselves as belonging to informal youth groups, 20 of them called themselves Nazi skinheads. In 2008, 218 informals were already identified.

Sources

• Teenagers commit 90% of ethnically motivated crimes // Fontanka.ru. 2008. May 16.