Prosecutor of the Directorate of the Prosecutor General's Office of the Russian Federation in the Far East on the results of the fight against extremism in 2012

On August 1, 2012, the prosecutor of the Office of the Prosecutor General of the Russian Federation in the Far Eastern Federal District reported on the results of the fight against extremism in the first half of 2012.

According to a representative of the department, the prosecutor's office of the Far Eastern Federal District carried out 475 inspections of compliance with legislation on countering extremism, as a result of which 776 violations were identified, more than 300 submissions were made, about 150 officials were brought to disciplinary and administrative liability, 16 protests were filed, nine warnings were issued, 33 claims were sent to the courts. 13 criminal cases of an extremist nature have also been initiated. (See the information from the SOVA Center “ Crimes of an extremist nature ”).

The SOVA Center is aware of the following criminal cases and sentences in the region in 2012:

• In April 2012, a case was initiated in the Sakhalin region under Part 1 of Art. 282 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (incitement of national hatred) against a 53-year-old resident of Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk, who wrote “inscriptions of an extremist nature” on banknotes of the Central Bank of the Russian Federation. The defendant used the money as a means of payment and distributed it through retail outlets. An investigation is underway.

• In April 2012, the Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk City Court issued a verdict under Part 1 of Art. 282 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (incitement of national hatred) and Part 1 of Art. 280 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (prizes for extremist activities) to Alexey Kolesnikov and Roman Alekseev for distributing xenophobic leaflets in June 2010.

• In March 2012, the Investigative Department for Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk of the Investigative Department of the RF Investigative Committee for the Sakhalin Region opened a criminal case against a local resident under Part 1 of Art. 282 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (incitement of hatred or enmity, as well as humiliation of a person’s dignity based on belonging to a social group) for posting an article on the social network “VKontakte”. We note that we consider this case to be unlawful.

• In April 2012, the Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation for the Primorsky Territory opened a criminal case under Part 1 of Art. 282 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation against a 30-year-old resident of the city of Vladivostok for posting xenophobic text on the social network “VKontakte” and on the page “Group Rodnovery Primorye”.

• In April 2012, the Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation for the Primorsky Territory completed a criminal investigation against five local residents, accused, depending on the role of each, under Part 2 of Art. 282.1 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (organization of an extremist community), part 1 of Art. 30, paragraph “a”, part 2, art. 205 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (attempt to commit a terrorist act), part 3 of Art. 222 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (illegal acquisition, transfer, sale, storage, transportation or carrying of explosives), Part 1 of Art. 30, part 2 art. 213 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (hooliganism) for attacks on people of “non-Slavic appearance” and an attempt to blow up the building of the Federal Migration Service of the Russian Federation in the Primorsky Territory.

• In April 2012, the Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation for the Primorsky Territory opened a criminal case under Part 1 of Art. 282 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation against a 22-year-old resident of the city of Nakhodka for posting xenophobic materials on the social network “My World” in free access to an unlimited number of Internet users.

• In February 2012 , the case was sent to the Primorsky District Court of Novorossiysk for consideration on the merits under Part 2 of Art. 213 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (hooliganism committed with the use of objects used as weapons, motivated by national hatred, committed by a group of persons by prior conspiracy) about the attack and beating of natives of Armenia by a group of young people on June 22, 2009 in the village of Verkhnebakansky.

-In January 2012 , the case under paragraph “b” of Part 2 of Art. 116 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (beatings motivated by national hatred) about a racist attack on a native of Tajikistan Sh. Shonazarov, which occurred in July last year.

• In April 2012, in Khabarovsk, the magistrate of court district No. 19 of the Kirovsky district of the city of Khabarovskissued a verdict under Part 1 of Art. 280 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation and part 2 p. 214 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (vandalism motivated by national hatred).

• In February 2012, the press service of the Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs for the Amur Region reported that a trial was underway under Part 1 of Art. 282 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (incitement of hatred or enmity, as well as humiliation of human dignity) against Blagoveshchensk resident Alexander Kornaushenko for posting text from the “Federal List of Extremist Materials.”

• In June 2012, in Vladivostok they were convicted under Part 280 (public calls for extremist activities), Part 1 of Art. 282 and part 2 of Art. 282.2 (participation in an extremist organization) of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation, activists of the “Other Russia” movement Igor Popov and Alexander Kurov for membership in the NBP, banned for extremism, as well as inciting hatred against government officials and law enforcement agencies. Let us remind you that we do not consider prosecution for membership in the NBP to be legitimate.

In addition, the prosecutor reported that in the Sakhalin region the prosecutor's office revealed the presence in the collections of the South Sakhalin Central Library System of K. Zelensky's book "Hitler's Black Guard. Waffen-SS", which is included in the Federal List of Extremist Materials. Based on the results of the inspection, an application was sent to the court to impose an obligation on the municipal institution to exclude readers from accessing the specified book. The prosecutor's demands were satisfied by the defendant voluntarily. The civil case was terminated by the court.

And in the Primorsky Territory, the decision of the Pervomaisky District Court of Vladivostok dated March 6, 2012, recognizing 11 Islamic materials as extremist, came into force.

The prosecutor also reported on proposals for limiting access of minors to online resources containing extremist materials in the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia), Kamchatka and Khabarovsk territories, Amur, Sakhalin, Magadan regions, Jewish Autonomous Region, submitted to the heads of educational institutions. (Remember that we do not consider some of these sanctions to be lawful).

Sources

• Over the past six months, 13 criminal cases of an extremist nature have been initiated in the Far East // REGNUM news agency. 2012. August 1.