The head of the Saratov city branch of the Yabloko party is accused of extremism

This coming Friday, the head of the Saratov city branch of the Yabloko party, Mikhail Namestnikov, will appear before a magistrate court on charges under Art. 20.29 Code of Administrative Offenses “Production and distribution of extremist materials.” According to the Central Internal Affairs Directorate, a year ago the politician posted a film on his page on the social network Vkontakte, which three months later was recognized as extremist. Law enforcement agencies believe that the accused will most likely get off with a minimal fine. According to experts, such a fight against extremism is a futile exercise.

According to the investigation, on August 4, 2010, the head of the Saratov city branch of the Yabloko party, Mikhail Namestnikov, posted on his page on the social network Vkontakte the film “Russian Resistance,” allegedly telling about youth subcultures. The film was included in the federal list of “extremist” materials only three and a half months later, by decision of the Miyakinsky District Court of the Republic of Bashkortostan on November 18, 2010. Mr. Namestnikov himself explained to Kommersant that he came across the film on the Internet by chance and posted it on the page only because he was interested in the summary of the video, which talked about interviews with representatives of youth subcultures. “The film was big, so I didn’t bother to download it, I just posted it and forgot about it,” says the politician. “The point of prosecution for extremism is that traditionally the current paradigm of the authorities is to tighten the screws as much as possible, especially when it comes to the youth subculture, which the authorities cannot influence by any ideological guidelines.” According to him, during all this time the video was viewed only once, as the politician himself believes, by a law enforcement officer.

“It’s not so important whether one person or a thousand watched it,” explains Alexey Egorov, head of the press service of the Main Directorate of the Ministry of Internal Affairs for the Saratov Region. “The main thing is that there is the very fact of distribution, and if he did not know that this material was recognized as extremist, then ignorance of the law does not exempt him from responsibility.” According to him, there is nothing serious in this case, since this is an administrative offense, which the accused fully admitted. In addition to this, the interlocutor explained to Kommersant that Mr. Namestnikov is regarded by law enforcement agencies as a law-abiding citizen, therefore, he will most likely receive a minimum fine of one thousand rubles.

Article 20.29 of the Code of Administrative Offenses states that for the mass distribution of extremist materials included in the federal list, citizens face a fine of one to three thousand rubles or arrest for 15 days with confiscation of materials and equipment used for their production.

The head of the regional branch of the Yabloko party, Dmitry Konnychev, considers the accusations against his colleague to be unlawful. “It’s not very clear what ‘extremism’ is,” he says. “Namestnikov is not to blame, and I think that he will challenge the court’s decision, this is a matter of principle.” According to him, the completion of the criminal case is necessary for investigators for reporting, since “it is necessary to show that people work and eat their bread for a reason.”

A similar incident involving the dissemination of extremist materials through social networks occurred a month ago. Then the Investigative Committee of the Investigative Committee opened a criminal case under Part 1 of Art. 282 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (“Inciting hatred or enmity, as well as humiliation of human dignity”) in relation to a 21-year-old teenager who wrote Nazi slogans on the wall on his VKontakte page. The teenager faces a fine of 300 thousand rubles or imprisonment for up to two years.

Chairman of the human rights center Solidarity, Alexander Nikitin, calls the fight against extremism “idiocy squared.” “People simply have nothing to do, so they invent extremists, conspiracies and attacks on someone’s rights,” says Mr. Nikitin. “And the very procedure for recognizing materials as extremist is ill-conceived, primitive and unconstitutional.” In his opinion, the security forces are fighting extremism because “they are not able to fight corruption and banditry.”

Andrey Shenin

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