Russian Prosecutor General Yuri Chaika on countering extremism

On May 13, 2009, at a meeting of the Federation Council of the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation, Prosecutor General of the Russian Federation Yuri Chaika presented a report on the state of law and order in 2008, a significant part of which was devoted to the problem of extremism.

The Prosecutor General said that he does not exclude the possibility of increasing social tension in society under the influence of crisis phenomena in the economy, including the worsening of the criminogenic situation in the field of manifestations of extremism.

According to him, in 2008 prosecutors uncovered 18,800 violations of the law on combating extremism. Over the past two years, the number of submitted acts of response has tripled.

In 2008, 460 extremist crimes (+29%) were registered in Russia, of which 430 were solved. In the structure of crimes of an extremist orientation, a significant number (182) are occupied by acts qualified as inciting hatred or enmity.

In 2008, 17 murders were registered motivated by national, racial, religious hatred, and in 2007 - 22.

The Prosecutor General noted that "The problem of the spread of extremism in the Russian Federation has become one of the key factors leading to an increase in instability in society, giving rise to separatist sentiments in certain regions and creating a threat of extreme forms of extremist manifestations - terrorist acts. " Since these trends pose a real threat to the security of the state, it is impossible to allow conflicts on interethnic grounds in a multinational country.

He stated that "it is necessary not only to step up efforts to expose and eliminate extremist groups, but also to carry out preventive work more actively" and develop new effective forms of interdepartmental interaction.

Thus, "information transmitted by federal security agencies allowed prosecutors to stop a number of violations of the law in educational institutions in the republics of Altai and Kalmykia, the Kabardino-Balkarian Republic, the Republic, Tambov and Ulyanovsk regions" . Yury Chaika did not explain what kind of incidents he was talking about.

The Prosecutor General believes that "until now, the necessary system of countering extremism has not been formed in the regions, the interaction of interested departments is not sufficiently provided, work needs to be improved and intensified to neutralize and disunite associations whose members are prone to committing extremist crimes" .

Sources

• Report of the Prosecutor General of the Russian Federation Yu.Ya. Chaika at the meeting of the Federation Council of the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation // General Prosecutor's Office of the Russian Federation. 2009. May 13.