December 2008 Preliminary results of the year

In December 2008, at least 8 people were injured in racist and xenophobic attacks, two of whom died. As before, a significant decrease in the number of victims (in 2007 during the same period 11 people died and 39 were injured) we attribute solely to the lack of information. December attacks, in addition to Moscow, were recorded in Novosibirsk, Volgograd and Belgorod.

In total, according to preliminary data, which will certainly be further refined, in 2008 at least 87 murders were committed in Russia and at least 378 people were injured (in 2007, these data amounted to 86 dead and 599 injured). In addition to Moscow (51 killed and 175 wounded) and St. Petersburg (15 killed, 37 wounded), incidents were noted in 39 other regions of the country. As always, the regions of the North Caucasus are excluded from these statistics. In addition to the two capitals, Yekaterinburg (4 killed, 15 wounded), Voronezh (2 killed, 17 wounded), Nizhny Novgorod (2 killed, 13 wounded) and previously calm Penza (14 wounded) hold the lead in terms of violence in 2008.

In December 2008, at least 5 sentences were handed down for violent crimes, in which the hate motive was taken into account (2 in Moscow, one each in St. Petersburg, Yekaterinburg and Lipetsk). A total of 15 people were convicted in these trials.

Altogether, in 2008, at least 30 convictions were handed down for crimes related to violence, in which the motive of hatred was recognized. 105 people were convicted in them (29 of them - conditionally).

In December 2008, 3 sentences were handed down for hate propaganda against 5 people (in Moscow, Penza and Petrozavodsk).

In total, at least 41 verdicts were handed down against the propagandists, in which 55 people were convicted, including 20 of them who were actually not punished (they were sentenced on probation or released from punishment for various reasons).

In December 2008, the Federal List of Extremist Materials was replenished twice, as a result, by the end of 2008, 301 items were included in it (de facto - 292 items).