Extremists breed like cockroaches

When deciphering the entries in the text of the publication, errors. The SOVA Center publishes the text of the interview in a corrected form.

Data from the Ministry of Internal Affairs on the dynamics of "extremist" crimes over the past the years look terrible. If the hate crime situation (and this, in fact, is extremism) corresponds to the numbers police, then life in Russia is becoming more and more uncomfortable. However, not all experts agree that the situation is so serious. Among those who urges not to panic - director of the information center "Sova", engaged in monitoring xenophobia and extremism, Alexander Verkhovsky :

• In fact, the picture of the dynamics of extremism is somewhat more complicated. How law enforcement agencies believe such things are well known. There is a list of articles of the Criminal Code, the crimes under which are considered "extremist". I don’t know exactly what they think - wound up criminal cases or sentences, but the principle does not is changing.

So I cannot say that the statistics of the Ministry of Internal Affairs adequately reflects the number of such crimes, and even more so their dynamics.

"SP": - Do you mean that "extremism" is now understood broadly, let's say?

• We try to follow cases under Article 282 of the Criminal Code and the like, and I I can say that the unlawful, in our opinion, application of this article - those cases where we believe that the law should not have been applied - not so much a lot of. Yes, these cases of unfounded accusations are important. Yes, among them there are always a lot of scandalous, well-known stories. But the bulk Sentences under these articles are passed, in general, "for the cause."

"SP": - And yet, how does the statement about a threefold increase in extremism compare with reality?

• Let's see what exactly became three times more. It has tripled cases opened (or successfully closed) by our police. That is law enforcement agencies began to work three times more actively, to identify more such crimes - which is understandable, because a whole structure of "E" centers.

We must also understand that such crimes are always very high latency, that is, not all incidents are included in the reports. Except In addition, extremist crimes, in general, are divided into two main groups: violent and, let's say, propaganda and "organizational" - here we include all kinds of "incitement" and membership in banned organizations.

So, the increase in registered crimes of a violent nature does not reflect a deterioration in the situation, but an improvement in the work of the police. It became more register, open up more. This block is gradually coming out of dusk. In general, according to our information, racist killings and beatings in recent years has become no more, and even somewhat less. Because for such things The police began to pay attention and adequately respond. So here there is a clear success of the Ministry of Internal Affairs. The peak of racist violence we seem to passed.

As for other "extremist crimes", non-violent, then criteria by which the initiated cases are compared with the real crime are very vague.

"SP": - In what sense?

• It is clear that, say, public statements falling under 282 article, there are thousands, but what is there - there are an infinite number of them. Any a rude statement on a fence or on the Internet can be interpreted as crime. But criminal cases in such cases are initiated in a tiny fraction of the cases. And well, by the way, it would be a nightmare if all cases of such statements brought proceedings! I would have to to punish every second person who says "chocks zadolbali" and the like...

"SP": - And by what criteria are they initiated or not initiated cases?

• The dynamics of criminal cases – including incitement to hatred and membership in extremist organizations - has nothing to do with real level of intolerance in society. Criminal cases for this articles are initiated solely for political reasons. Speech is not necessarily refers to "high" politics: more often it is just a matter of internal hardware considerations, in reporting.

Pay attention: there are fewer cases on the National Bolsheviks now, on members Hizb ut-Tahrir too. But organizations have not disappeared, they exist. What does it mean? It means that law enforcement officers do not need too much now cases in this category.

Sometimes we see how completely ridiculous criminal cases are initiated. Those where the police really "get to the bottom of the pole." What is this, activists who especially annoyed the “organs”? No, most of the time it's just the cops. and prosecutors do not collect indicators for a particular category "extremism".

"SP": - Is there a real statistics of such crimes? What should be done so that the police figures are as close as possible to reality?

• We are trying to conduct our own monitoring, but our capabilities limited. Now the main drawback of official statistics is that it fixes only those crimes where the investigation and the court considered it necessary emphasize racist etc. . nature of motives. There are few such cases. A how to find out the real number of attacks? We offer a mechanism which has already been tested in some countries and has proven itself well. When the crime is first recorded - that is, the victim applied to the police or the law enforcement officers themselves went to the scene of the crime - primary interrogators are required to put a “tick” in a special box if, with At first glance, one can speculate - only speculate! - racist element.

This is not yet an investigative definition, much less a definition of guilt - but in in the future, when the investigation team is already dealing with the case, they will obliged to confirm or refute the racist character crimes.

Sources

• Extremists breed like cockroaches // Free press. 2011. November 18.