September 2009. Monthly results

During September 2009, at least 23 people were injured in racist and neo-Nazi attacks, according to our records, six of whom died. In addition to Moscow and St. Petersburg, incidents occurred in Nizhny Novgorod, Kazan, Orel and Samara. In September 2008, 7 people were killed and at least 47 were injured.

In total, since the beginning of 2009, at least 48 people have died in 36 regions of Russia from racist and neo-Nazi attacks, and at least 253 have received various injuries. During the same period in 2008, 92 people died and at least 379 were injured.

In September, at least eleven acts of vandalism were recorded in eight Russian regions. The actions of the vandals in the Tver region, where the Dmitrov-Cherkasskoe cemetery suffered three times within a month, caused a special resonance. In addition, Jewish buildings and burial sites became the target of attacks in the Khabarovsk Territory (where an arson attempt was made) and in the Nizhny Novgorod Region. A mosque was desecrated in the Sverdlovsk region, Armenian graves were desecrated in the Krasnodar region, and "ideological" actions of vandals were recorded in the Tyumen and Lipetsk regions (we emphasize that here we are not taking into account isolated facts of drawing swastikas on residential buildings, etc., but either mass graffiti actions, or actions in which some iconic objects became the object of application).

Since the beginning of 2009, we have recorded at least 73 acts of ideologically and racist motivated vandalism, including 9 arsons. In particular, out of the recorded incidents, 24 episodes of actions of "ideological" vandalism (desecration of monuments of the Great Patriotic War, organized actions to apply neo-Nazi graffiti, etc.) account for 20 episodes, Jewish objects - 20 episodes, Orthodox - 13 episodes, Muslim - 6 episodes , Armenian - 4 episodes, Protestant - 4 episodes, one episode each for Catholic buildings and buildings belonging to new religious groups).

In September, the Federal List of Extremist Materials was updated four times (September 4, 17, 23 and 25) - it included paragraphs. 415-431 (the last (the book "The Personality of a Muslim") is de facto another duplicate prohibition, of which there are now 15 in the list). In September, the decision to recognize the anti-Krishnaite leaflet of the Khabarovsk Young Guards as extremist was canceled (p. 413). Thus, at present, 6 materials are illegally included in the Federal List.

In September, there were at least three convictions for violent crimes that included a hate motive - two in Nizhny Novgorod and one in Moscow. In total, 17 people were convicted in these trials, four of whom received suspended sentences. In total, since the beginning of the year, 34 trials related to violent racist crimes have ended with convictions. 102 people were convicted in them (including 26 people sentenced on probation without additional sanctions or released from punishment on various grounds).

Four guilty verdicts were handed down in September against five people for xenophobic propaganda (in the Komi Republic and Vladimir regions).

In total, since the beginning of the year for xenophobic propaganda under Art. 282 of the Criminal Code (inciting hatred), 29 convictions were issued against 40 people (20 of them were sentenced on probation and without additional sanctions).

In the field of misuse of anti-extremist legislation, two developments have become the most notable.

Firstly, it is a court to liquidate the Novorossiysk Committee for Human Rights "for extremism" and an attempt to recognize the slogan "Freedom is not given, freedom is taken" as extremist. Secondly, the recognition of the extremist community of Jehovah's Witnesses in Taganrog and the simultaneous ban on almost three dozen titles of their publications (September 11, 2009).