Optical illusion

Human rights activists and security forces see extremism in very different places

The fighters against extremism are now aimed primarily at the Internet - such a conclusion can be drawn from the results of a special meeting of the Presidential Council for Human Rights, which was held on Monday with the participation of representatives of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and the Prosecutor General's Office.

Vladimir Makarov, deputy head of the Interior Ministry's Main Directorate for Combating Extremism, praised recent tightening laws — such as the possibility of pre-trial blocking of websites — and said that about two-thirds of extremist crimes are committed online. Aleksey Zhafyarov from the Prosecutor General's Office cited the same figures and proposed expanding the powers of his department - in particular, to block websites not only for inciting extremism, but also for justifying it.

The theme of the meeting of the Council was the growth of radicalism in society. Many human rights activists in their speeches touched upon the death of Boris Nemtsov and the reasons why the assassination of a well-known opposition politician near the walls of the Kremlin became possible. Member of the HRC Nikolay Svanidze believes that the reason is in the selective interpretation of the concept of "extremism". Under this article, according to Makarov, more than 830 people were accused in 2014. At the same time, no one touches, for example, those who destroyed the makeshift Boris Nemtsov memorial on the Moskvoretsky Bridge - smashed photos of the politician, scattered flowers and candles.

Human rights activists said that federal politicians themselves often set an example, which the radicals joyfully pick up. Svanidze recalled the scandalous forum in St. Petersburg, which brought together neo-Nazis from all over Europe - although in the end, the little-known deputy head of the St. its chairman, State Duma deputy Alexei Zhuravlev.

We also discussed the Anti-Maidan, among the organizers of which is Senator Dmitry Sablin: now his supporters are calling to smash the "fifth column" and defend themselves against the opposition with weapons in their hands.

- How does this happen? asks Alexander Verkhovskoy, director of the SOVA analytical center. — How many times were the so-called civilian raids against illegal migrants organized? The police almost never intervene. This is how half-legalized violence appears. And now some of these people are in the ranks of Anti-Maidan.

Verkhovskoy also recalled the National Liberation Movement, created by State Duma deputy Yevgeny Fyodorov, which is openly recruiting volunteers to take part in hostilities in the Donbass. And all these cases are not investigated.

Judging by the reports of representatives of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and the prosecutor's office, these crimes committed by living people in the real world are much less worrying than virtual crimes. The Prosecutor General’s Office also saw a problem in the fact that there are a lot of Russian volunteers among those fighting in Donbass (once a representative of the prosecutor’s office even said the phrase “militants-mercenaries”): Aleksey Zhafyarov called “citizens returning from combat points” one of the main dangerous trends. It is interesting to determine the origins of such a trend.

“This is a matter of prevention,” Zhafyarov said. - How to make sure that these citizens do not leave? The Internet platform is a conductor of radical ideas.

That is, not television telling about the mass atrocities of the Ukrainian army, not quotes about the historical justice of Russia's reunification with Crimea and the holy war, not openly operating radical groups created under the wing of deputies and senators, but the Internet.

Vladimir Makarov supported the statistics: according to him, over the past year, the growth of extremist crimes amounted to 38.7%, and the number of materials removed on these grounds was more than two million. The numbers are impressive, especially if you do not remember what lies behind them. For example, the blocking of Graney, Ezhednevny Zhurnal, and Kasparov.ru, which both got into the black list a year ago and remain on it, have not yet received an explanation of the reasons for this blocking.

But the Prosecutor General's Office wants new powers - in particular, to be able to block not only the resources that raise funds for extremist activities (for example, the war in Syria, Zhafyarov explained), but also the accounts themselves. As well as the ability to block sites containing "agitation or propaganda of extremism."

“Extremist propaganda is now less and less expressed in the form of open appeals, rather in the form of approval and justification,” Zhafyarov complained. “We don’t have a mechanism for blocking such resources. Our proposal is to expand the powers of the Prosecutor General's Office to block Internet content. We see no other way.