The State Duma held hearings on the problems of crime based on national, racial and religious intolerance

On September 30, 2008, the State Duma of the Russian Federation held parliamentary hearings "On the problems of legislative support for combating crime based on national, racial and religious intolerance."

At the hearings, it was noted that for three years "a steady increase in crimes of an extremist orientation" has been observed . According to the data provided by the Ministry of Internal Affairs, "in 2004, 130 acts of extremism were committed in Russia, in 2005 there were 152 of them, in 2006 - 263, in 2007 - 356, and in the first half of 2008 - already 250" .

According to the prosecutor's office, in the first half of 2008, 19 nationalist murders were committed, 17 of which were committed by a group of young people aged 16 to 21.

It was also noted that there are currently more than 500 sites that incite national hatred.

At the meeting, several proposals were put forward to the government and deputies of the State Duma. Among them - to legislate the concepts of "Internet site" and "distributor of information" , to fix the content of the legal concepts of "extremist offense" and "extremist crime" . Also, on the issues of countering extremism, it was proposed to discuss the creation of a single interdepartmental data bank and the topic of toughening punishment under Art. 282 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (inciting hatred or enmity), art. 282.1 (organization of an extremist community) and Art. 282.2 (organization of activities of an extremist organization).

Sources

• In Russia, the number of ethnically motivated crimes has tripled in 3 years // IA REGNUM.Ru. 2008. September 30.
• In Russia, there may be a department for the problems of the activities of religious organizations // IA REGNUM.Ru. 2008. September 30.