Racist violence: June results

The SOVA Center summed up the results of the past month. summer activity neo-Nazis is declining - this June was no exception. Compared with the previous month, the number of attacks decreased. According to our calculations, 6 people suffered from hate-motivated attacks this month, out of three of them died. I want to make a reservation right away that these figures are preliminary.

In general, over the first six months, we observe a positive downward trend the number of victims of racist violence - the number of racist murders, primarily in Moscow and St. Petersburg. This is probably related to increased work of law enforcement officers after events on Manezhnaya Square.

The loudest of the verdicts handed down in June was the verdict in the case Borovikov-Voevodin gang, whose members were accused of committing a whole a series of hate-motivated killings, including the murder of scientist Nikolai Girenko in June 2004. The trial in the case lasted two and a half years and went very difficult, the defense of the defendants did everything to delay the process. Court sessions were accompanied by shouts and hoots from supporters of the accused who came to court sessions. However, despite against all odds, the jury found almost all of the defendants guilty. AND On June 14, the city court of St. Petersburg delivered a verdict on this long case. Alexei Voevodin and Artem Prokhorenko received life sentences imprisonment, ten more people - terms from 2 years probation to 18 years deprivation of liberty. Two were released earlier in the courtroom. Lawyers victims were satisfied with the verdict of the jury and the verdict of the court. The severity of the sentence passed corresponds to the degree of guilt of the gang members.

The decrease in the number of neo-Nazi crimes is undoubtedly associated with increased criminal prosecution. Only in the spring of 2011 was several verdicts have been handed down in high-profile cases. The most resonant of them was the verdict handed down in May in the case of the murder of lawyer Stanislav Markelov and journalist Anastasia Baburova. In addition, Kalinin The district court of St. Petersburg in April passed a verdict on the scandalous criminal case of an attack on two teenagers, Tagir Kerimov and Suleiman Ramazanov. The same court in May sentenced members of the neo-Nazi group "Lincoln-88", accused of 12 racist attacks, including two murders. In March The Altai Regional Court in Barnaul passed a verdict on a group that committed several racist attacks in which three people received injuries of varying severity and a student from South Korea died. In May of the same year, by the verdict of the Nizhny Novgorod Regional Court members of the far-right group "White Legion" from Dzerzhinsk. In June, members of the neo-Nazi Volkssturm group from Yekaterinburg were also sentenced. They were involved in a number of murders and attempted murder, robbery and robbery.

In these sentences, most of the neo-Nazis received long sentences. deprivation of liberty. Mostly got off with probation juvenile defendants and those who did not directly participate in murders. And this is a positive trend.

Unfortunately, the quality of prosecution for xenophobic propaganda is beyond hasn't improved much in the last two years. Basically, people are persecuted for minor acts (posting on the Internet racist videos and statements on social networks). However, the punishment for these acts are also low. Almost half of the convicts received suspended sentences terms (16 people out of 36). It seems to me that a more appropriate punishment there would be fines or correctional labor. But such convicts, alas, minority. Sources

• Racist violence: results of June // Grani.ru. 2011. July 4th.