The website "Stop the occupation of Karjala" is recognized as extremist

In Karelia, the website of the organization of Karelian separatists is recognized as extremist, access to it is blocked on the territory of the Russian Federation.

In January 2015, the Petrozavodsk City Court recognized extremist website of the organization "Stop the occupation of Karjala" and her page on the social network VKontakte. At the end of March 2015 resources were included in the Federal List of Extremist Materials (p. 2675) and in the Unified Register of Domain Names containing information prohibited in the Russian Federation, and access to them was restricted.

The court ruled on the basis of the results of the linguistic examination, which established that the materials of the site " contain information, aimed at inciting hatred and enmity on a national basis ."

The history of the ban on the site "Stop the occupation of Karjala" and the pages of the organization in the social network are as follows. December 12, 2014 deputy Sergei Pirozhnikov turned to the prosecutor's office with a request to check them "for extremism" and block. December 15, 2014 in an official response to name of the Chairman of the Legislative Assembly of the Republic of Karelia prosecutor's office republic reported that the center "E" of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Karelia conducted an examination of a number of site and page materials and not found there " calls for the implementation of extremist activity ". In particular, the "Petition of the Karelian people", which proposed holding a referendum on the sovereignty of Karelia.

However, the prosecutor's office stated that the website and the group systematically places materials " aimed at incitement to national hatred ," and filed a claim with the court for recognition of some materials as extremist.

From our point of view, the decision of the Petrozavodsk City court is unlawful. We oppose attempts to criminalize public discussion on the rights of individual territories, the right to self-determination, and even separatist calls. Prohibitive measures can only be justified if case when it comes to calls for violent action against separatist goals, but not about calls for a referendum.

Sources

• The prosecutor's office recognized the site "Stop the Occupation of Karelia" as extremist // KarelNews. 2015. March 17.
• The website of the public organization "Stop the occupation of Karjala" was blocked by a court decision // Finugor.ru. 2015. April 1st.