Racist Federation

Deputy Director of the Information and Analytical Center "Owl" Galina Kozhevnikova tells how many violent ethnically motivated crimes are committed in Russia, and Esquire clearly demonstrates these numbers. (In the original article, statistics are given in the form of pictograms).

Recorded by Dmitry Golubovsky Systematic, daily monitoring of racist and neo-Nazi motivated violence we began to wage in 2004. We take information from several sources. First, it is the media, where the most large amounts of data - at least, this was the case until recently. Secondly, the regional monitoring of the Moscow Helsinki Group and other human rights defenders, as well as our own monitoring, which we have already we have been conducting in eight regions for two years. Thirdly, the websites of courts, prosecutors and police, GAS "Justice". Now a third of the information in our database is from official sources, but there is a serious drawback: it comes very late, because between the verdict and the incident sometimes passes some years. And the law enforcement agencies themselves, especially in the provinces, Information is not shared very well. The fourth source is blogs: we contact the author of a racist attack post if he answers, the data is taken into account, but on average only one in ten our letters we receive a response. But in the last year of information there has become less: either there were fewer attacks (which is unlikely), or people they are not noticed, or they are afraid to write. The fifth source is, in fact, victims or direct witnesses who contact us directly. There are not many such people, but they do exist. The last source is these are anti-fascist and neo-Nazi forums. But in fact artistic there is much more whistle than truth.

We used to say that our statistics take into account a quarter or a fifth part of all racist attacks. But as the base is replenished with the rear number, it becomes obvious: even less. January-February we issue a final report for the past year, and a year later it statistics are replenished, on average, by 20-30%. This year the record is 35%. The reason is that less and less information gets into the press: either reports of racist attacks have ceased to be a media doubtful, or they are lost at the level of police reports, presented in such a way that it is impossible to distinguish them from everyday life. Besides, racially motivated crimes themselves have changed significantly. We, for example, we immediately brush aside all attacks with robbery, if the nationalist motive is not officially recognized. But now the Nazis are all more often disguise their attacks as robberies: after all, Nazi attacks seriously investigated, especially in Moscow and St. Petersburg, and robbery gives good chance of not getting caught.

However, there is a decline in 2010, primarily because in 2008-2009, many people were caught in the capitals. Planted serial neo-Nazi killers who went hunting almost every day, gangs that have been active for years - the National Socialist Society, Artur Ryno group, St. Petersburg NSVP. There was a very big gap It is clear that it will grow, but it takes time. The vast majority in other cities, everything is as it was, as it is. And the worst situation probably in Nizhny Novgorod: neo-Nazis are caught there, but if they not murderers, without exception released under suspended sentences. Bottom - third after Moscow and St. Petersburg region for violence and the third, where there is a real Nazi underground. Now the situation in Vladivostok is deteriorating sharply with these partisans of his and in Stavropol, where, in addition to the neo-Nazis, they became appear Caucasian nationalist gangs. However, in the statistics we generally do not take into account the huge region - the republics of the North Caucasus, simply because our monitoring technique basically does not work there.

One thing is good: quite a lot of racially motivated crimes have become recognize law enforcement officers themselves. They are no longer so afraid to go with this kind of charges in court. Sometimes the charge, of course, falls apart, but we at least know what law enforcement themselves think racist crime. In recent years, there has been a good trend the number of convictions and convictions is on the rise. But by and large, the only place where relatively surgical intervention law enforcement agencies could at least somehow break the situation - this is Voronezh. Previously, it was rightfully called the second or third fascist the capital of Russia. Peruvian Enrique Angelis was killed there in 2005. Hurtado, there were student demonstrations, and in the end managed to plant a gang out of 14 people. Of course, human rights activists reached the Prosecutor General with his complaints, but after this case was brought to an end, the local prosecutor's office was imbued with the importance of the moment and began to act herself. Of course, everything is slowly growing back there, but our local colleagues say that there are no such beatings as before. However, this, I repeat, is the only one of the non-capital regions where it was possible to achieve significant results. In other cities, the situation, judging by All in all, it's only getting worse.

Sources

• Racist Federation // Esquire. 2010. November 16.