Racism and xenophobia in April 2014

The following is our monthly review of instances of xenophobia and radical nationalism, along with any government countermeasures, for the month of April 2014. The review is based on material gathered by Sova Center in the course of our daily monitoring.

In April, no fewer than 6 people fell victim of racist or neo-Nazi attacks. Among them, one man – a Tajik citizen – was killed in Moscow.

Since the beginning of this year, 8 people were killed and at least 31 were injured in such attacks, in 11 regions of the Russian Federation. In addition, one person received death threats.

We have recorded at least 4 acts of vandalism which could be interpreted as motivated either by hatred or by neo-Nazi ideology this month. Since the beginning of January, we could count no fewer than 17 such acts of vandalism.

As usual, the number of neo-Nazi incidents increased around April 20, which is Adolf Hitler's birthday. This year, on April 21, unknown vandals in Chelyabinsk set the building of the prosecutor's office of the Kalininsky district on fire, leaving a svastika and an inscription about Hitler on the wall. On April 20, a video appeared on one of the ultra-right websites, showing nationalists burning a police base in Cheboksary. On April 18, a Tajik citizen was stabbed to death in Moscow, near the metro station Ulitsa Podbelskogo, as he was walking home from the grocery store.

In the public sphere, nationalists continued their campaign against the introduction of amendments to the law on citizenship. In Saint-Petersburg the “Russians” movement, the National-Democratic party, the National-Democrats, the “New Force” party, along with V. Milov's Democratic choice and A. Navalny's “Progress Party”, staged a meeting on the Field of Mars, gathering in total a few dozens people (between 50 and 70). Similar rallies were held in several other cities, but none of them saw mass participation.

New ultra-right raids were conducted in April. Activists of the “Shield of Moscow” movement

(Shchit Moskvy) carried out a raid on April 5 in order to catch taxi drivers working without a license. They also conducted raids aimed at “rubber apartments”. For instance, nationalists belonging to the “North Border” movement (in Syktyvkar), along with the Komi section of the “Guestbusters” (a project of the “Russians” movement), found the addresses of 13 apartments where migrant workers were registered, and glued Guestbusters’ stickers on their doors. Then the activists took pictures of the doors and posted them on their website, also indicating the concerned addresses. On April 6 in Khimki, activists from the Guestbusters, together with representatives of the Russians from Dolgoprudny, also conducted a raid, during which they checked several houses.

With the arrival of warmer weather, a whole range of nationalist organizations went back to their spring and summer outdoor activities, which include training to knife fight, close fight, and trail running.

At least two convictions for violence when courts established racial hatred as a motive took place in April. Three people were convicted, in Kostroma and Smolensk.

As such, from the beginning of the year we have recorded no fewer than 8 such convictions, against 16 individuals in 7 regions.

When it comes to xenophobic propaganda, no fewer than 11 convictions were issued in April, against 11 persons in 11 regions.

The most notorious verdict was taken on April 22 by the Butyrsky district court in Moscow against the chief editor of the “Radical Politics” bulletin (Radikalnaya Politika), Boris Stomakhin. The Court convicted him under Part 1 of Article 280 of the Criminal Code (public calls to extremism), Part 1 of Art. 282 (incitement to ethnic or national hatred), Part 1 of Article 205.2 (justification of terrorism), as well as Article 30 and Part 2 of Article 205.2 (preparation for public justification of terrorism with the use of the media), for the publication of several articles. He was sentenced to six and a half years of imprisonment, which we consider too harsh a sentence, given the fact that it is a condemnation for words, and also considering the small audience of the resources on which the articles were published.

Since the beginning of the year, at least 39 convictions for xenophobic propaganda were issued, against 39 people in 39 regions.

In April, the Federal list of extremist materials was updated on three occasions (on April 4, 11 and 24). Entries 2270 to 2294 were added. The following materials joined the list: Islamic materials of various kinds, including the websites of Islamist fighters' organizations, materials from “Hizb ut-Tahrir”, and texts written by Fayzrahman Sattarov, the leader of a forbidden Muslim community in Kazan; xenophobic materials of various sorts, including videos of Nazi skinheads associated with the “Format 18” organization and texts from the “Slavic North” group (Slavyansky Sever); an anti-Christian image posted on the social network website VKontakte; texts written by Gennady Pushkarev containing appeals to destruction of high crosses; a book by Benito Mussolini; but also stranger things to be forbidden, such as materials from the blog of a German historian from the Humboldt University in Berlin, Sebastian Stopper, and the visionary video “Angelica Zambrano’s Testimony”.

Certain materials already on the list were still added on it: the video “Social Advertising Prohibited on TV in 2010” was added for the third time; the video “Execution of a Tajik Drug Dealer”, for the second time, just like the famous anti-Semitic film “Russia Stabbed in the Back” (already considered as extremist and added on the list in 2007).