February 2009. Results of the month

In February 2009, at least 26 people were injured in racist and neo-Nazi attacks, 2 of whom died. In February 2008, at least 71 people were injured, 18 of whom died. The sharp decrease in the number of victims can be explained, in particular, by the active work of law enforcement agencies, which detained several groups of Nazi skinheads during the winter months. However, the fact that in Moscow, for example, after February 12, not a single incident was recorded, causes concern.

A total of 16 people have been killed since the beginning of the year and another 51 have been wounded.

As before, the Moscow region remains the main center of violence. In February, 10 people were wounded here; since the beginning of the year, 10 people have died here and at least 27 have been injured. Petersburg (with the Leningrad region) follows it. Single, but massive beatings were noted in February in Novosibirsk (1 dead and at least 4 injured people who were beaten as Armenians) and Kursk (at least 5 injured spectators of an anti-fascist concert).

In addition to the cities mentioned in February, racist incidents were noted in St. Petersburg, Nizhny Novgorod and Tambov.

The dominant group of victims since the beginning of the year are blacks (1 dead and at least 13 injured). However, the most brutal attacks continue to be directed against Central Asians. It is this group that accounts for the largest number of dead - 8 people, and at least 6 more were injured.

In February 2009, threats to activists of public organizations working in the field of counteracting radical nationalism became a significant part of the activities of neo-Nazis. In particular, systematic threats are made against employees of the SOVA Center.

To our knowledge, there were no convictions in February 2009 in criminal cases related to racist violence.

In February 2009, at least 4 guilty verdicts related to hate propaganda (Article 282) were issued (5 people were convicted): in Veliky Novgorod, Kaliningrad, Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky and in Yakutia.

Another sentence related to racist propaganda was handed down in Kemerovo under Art. 280 (calls for extremist activity).

The Federal List of Extremist Materials was updated three times (February 5 and 19 and 24). As of March 1, it included 318 points.