A round table was held in Novgorod the Great on the problems of applying anti-extremist legislation

On November 23, 2009, a round table was held in Veliky Novgorod on the problems of applying anti-extremist legislation. The round table was organized by the Office of the Commissioner for Human Rights of the Novgorod Region, the Information and Analytical Center "SOVA" and the Faculty of Law of the Novgorod State University.

The round table was attended by representatives of the regional department for combating extremism, the regional prosecutor's office, the department of the Federal Migration Service for the Novgorod region, the regional and city administrations, representatives of public and student organizations of the city, and the media.

Galina Matveeva, Commissioner for Human Rights in the Novgorod Region, made an opening speech, briefly describing the situation in the region, familiarizing the round table participants with a number of measures taken at the regional level to prevent conflicts that can be interpreted as "ethnic".

Galina Kozhevnikova, in her speech, dwelled on the positive experience of the Novgorod region in the field of application of anti-extremist legislation (in particular, it was in the Novgorod region that the first sentence was passed on charges of organizing an extremist community (Art. 282.1), the first sentence known to us for promoting hatred, with a ban for journalistic (i.e. propaganda) activities was also taken out by one of the Novgorod courts.And even the practice of administrative punishment (when the court not only fined a young man for a tattoo, but also ordered him to reduce it) can also become a positive example worthy of distribution in other Russian regions.

At the same time, Alexander Verkhovsky, in his introduction, dwelled on the problem of low quality, uncertainty of anti-extremist legislation, which provokes law enforcement agencies to unlawful law enforcement. In particular, there is a practice of issuing anti-extremist warnings for violations of completely different legislative acts (for example, labor, migration law), which leads to further blurring of concepts.

In the speeches of representatives of the Central Internal Affairs Directorate of the region and the regional prosecutor's office, the problem of preventing crimes committed by right-wing radical groups and suppressing ultra-right propaganda was touched upon. At the same time, representatives of law enforcement agencies drew attention to that. that ultra-right activity in the Novgorod region is often provoked by activists of radical organizations from other regions (primarily from St. Petersburg).

Representatives of the Federal Migration Service and the regional administration drew attention to the fact that one of the important ways to counteract radical manifestations is the clear interaction of various administrative services in conflict and potential conflict situations. An important role in this is played by the monitoring of the situation in the districts of the region, which has been established in recent years.