North-West Russia reports on countering extremism

On June 21, 2010, the Directorate of the General Prosecutor's Office of the Russian Federation in the Northwestern Federal District published a brief report on oversight activities for the implementation of anti-extremist legislation in the media and the Internet.

In particular, in the first months of 2010, the district prosecutors filed two applications for the recognition of materials as extremist.

The first of them - about the leaflets of the "Resistance" (it is not entirely clear whether we are talking about leaflets belonging to Roman Zentsov's group or something else) was satisfied by the court in March 2010 .

The second - about the recognition of the already non-existent blog of the former policeman from Pikalevo A. Smirnov as extremist material - at the beginning of June 2010 .

In the Arkhangelsk, Novgorod and Pskov regions and the Republic of Karelia in 2010, 5 criminal cases were initiated on the facts of "extremist" (judging by the context, mostly xenophobic) propaganda.

At least two criminal cases opened in 2009 ended with convictions in 2010:

• in Petrozavodsk ( sentence to Eric Klimkovich , for neo-Nazi videos on the Internet);

• in Severodvinsk, Murmansk region ( Nikolai Kazanin was sentenced for xenophobic propaganda on the Internet).

As of June 2010, in the Novgorod and Pskov regions and in St. Petersburg, checks are being carried out on 10 more materials on the facts of placing "extremist information" in the media (and, apparently, on the Internet).

In addition, the district prosecutor's office informs the general director of the Arkhangelsk regional non-profit fund of public initiatives "Perspektiva" about the anti-extremist presentation for xenophobic comments on the guest book of the organization's website and an anti-extremist warning to the chairman of the public association "Karelian Congress" for posting on the Internet calls to change the constitutional order and violate the integrity of the Russian Federation. These sanctions, the legitimacy of which, however, is not obvious to us, were also issued in 2010.

Sources

• Measures are being taken in the Northwestern Federal District to prevent the use of the media for extremist activities // Official website of the Prosecutor General's Office of the Russian Federation. 2010. June 21.