May 2009. Results of the month

During May 2009, racist and neo-Nazi-motivated attacks, according to our data to date, affected at least 22 people, five of whom died. In total, since the beginning of 2009, at least 30 people have died from such attacks, at least 117 have received various injuries (during the period of January-May 2008, at least 307 people were injured, 66 of whom died).

In May, incidents were recorded in Moscow, St. Petersburg, Blagoveshchensk, Krasnodar, Nizhny Novgorod, and Stavropol. In total, since the beginning of the year, violent racist incidents have occurred in 20 regions of Russia.

A great response was caused by the publication on one of the neo-Nazi sites of a statement about the readiness to hold May 5, 2009 a "day of wrath", which was then reported by the main Russian media.

As a result, at least one explosion (a trading tent in Moscow) and three arsons of police stations and a military enlistment office in Moscow, Nizhny Novgorod and Cheboksary, respectively, were recorded that day and the day before. With a high degree of probability, we can say that ultra-right groups are really involved in them. The remaining incidents that occurred on that day, for which neo-Nazis claimed responsibility, seem to us either criminal or unreliable, and their "appropriation" is another act of self-promotion.

Vandal activity, motivated by Nazi or xenophobic ideologies, resumed in April after a relative lull. In May, we recorded at least 9 acts of vandalism, in which we can speak with a high degree of confidence about the motive of hatred. These were anti-Semitic (4 episodes) and neo-Nazi motivated actions (desecration of memorials of the Great Patriotic War, etc. - 4 episodes) and the desecration of a Muslim cemetery.

In total, since the beginning of the year, we have recorded at least 34 acts of vandalism, the motive of hatred in which is almost beyond doubt in our minds. And for the first time in many years, actions against Jewish objects (9 episodes) gave way to ideological actions (mass drawing of neo-Nazi graffiti and desecration of WWII memorials - 13 episodes in total). The third place among the victims of xenophobically motivated vandals is confidently occupied by objects of the Russian Orthodox Church (7 episodes).

In May, the Federal List of Extremist Materials was updated twice (May 13 and 20). It included paragraphs. 368-374. Inclusion in the list 373 and 374 (the site "Ufa provincial" and the historical book about the "Waffen-SS") seems to us doubtful.

In May, at least three convictions were handed down for violent crimes that included a hate motive. In Moscow, two teenagers were convicted of two racist attacks, in Adygea a policeman was convicted for attacking an Armenian family, and in Izhevsk, a neo-Nazi who beat up an anti-fascist girl. It is significant that of the four convicts, only the Adyghe policeman was given a suspended sentence.

In total, since the beginning of the year, at least 11 sentences against 28 people have been handed down for violent crimes with a racist motive (5 were sentenced on probation without additional sanctions).

Two sentences were handed down for xenophobic propaganda in May. On May 28, 2009, Alexander Belov, the former (and in fact the real) leader of the Movement against Illegal Immigration, was found guilty of inciting ethnic hatred and sentenced to 1.5 years probation without any additional sanctions. Despite the fact that the verdict actually leaves A. Belov unpunished, this is one of the few guilty verdicts against far-right leaders of the all-Russian scale. And the next day, a nationalist activist from Arkhangelsk was found guilty of inciting hatred. In total, since the beginning of the year, at least 13 convictions against 17 people have been handed down for xenophobic propaganda (6 were sentenced on probation without additional sanctions).

In addition, in May, one sentence was handed down for cemetery vandalism, which also took into account the motive of hatred - in the Sverdlovsk region, a Satanist was convicted for repeated desecration of graves.

In May 2009, the Russian Supreme Court recognized the international religious association Tablighi Jamaat as extremist. The ban on the activities of the organization, which we consider unlawful, is currently being challenged by the lawyers of the human rights organization "Agora".

The three warnings issued by Roskomnadzor to the newspapers Krasnoyarsky Rabochiy, Permsky Obozrevatel and Chernovik also seem unlawful to us. For "Chernovik" this is the second warning within a year, which gives the right to initiate the process of liquidation of this Dagestan newspaper (remember, five journalists of "Chernovik" are currently on trial on charges, also, in our opinion, unlawful, of inciting hatred).

But the most scandalous "anti-extremist" action of May was, perhaps, the submission to the State Duma of the draft law "On Amendments to the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (on the issue of establishing criminal liability for encroachment on historical memory in relation to events that took place during the Second World War) ". This bill is clearly introduced in connection with the creation of a presidential commission to counter attempts to falsify history. Together they represent a very controversial initiative and we subscribe to the assessment given by the Memorial Society. The proposed new article of the Criminal Code is formulated very inaccurately, in particular, it criminalizes any assertion of crimes committed by the states of the anti-Hitler coalition, and this severely restricts the freedom of historical judgment (for example, the right to call the Katyn shooting or the nuclear bombing of Hiroshima a crime).