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The Council of Europe Commission noted Russia’s failure to implement the recommendation to revise the definition of extremism
The European Commission against Racism and Intolerance (ECRI) noted that Russia did not follow recommendations to clarify the concept of extremism.
On June 7, 2016, the European Commission against Racism and Intolerance (ECRI) of the Council of Europe issued an opinion on the implementation of the recommendations it made to Russia in 2013 based on the results of its fourth monitoring cycle.
The commission made three recommendations: to ensure the rights of stateless persons, to revise anti-extremist legislation and to “revive” the all-Russian program for promoting tolerance. ECRI believes that the Russian authorities have not implemented any of the recommendations.
On the first question, the commission noted that the procedure for registering foreigners and stateless persons in Russia has not changed since 2007, and ECRI does not have sufficient information about the two bills submitted to the State Duma in this area. Citing human rights organizations, the commission argues that stateless persons face difficulties in obtaining documents, end up in temporary detention centers, are deported and are subject to criminal prosecution for attempting to leave the country without documents. As a positive example, ECRI cites only the refusals of St. Petersburg courts to deport stateless persons after the decision of the ECHR in the case “Kim v. Russia”.
In 2013, ECRI recommended that Russia change the definition of extremism in federal law to cover only serious hate crimes and violent crimes, and that the law clarify the criteria for declaring material extremist. Now the commission noted that since the publication of the report, the legislation has been changed: new offenses have been added and penalties have been tightened. ECRI noted that in November 2015, the State Duma adopted a law prohibiting the recognition of sacred texts of four world religions as extremist. However, the commission believes that this law will not protect non-traditional religious groups, in particular, Jehovah's Witnesses and representatives of a number of Islamic movements. At the same time, ECRI added, the Federal List of Extremist Materials already contains more than 3 thousand items.
As for programs promoting tolerance, in 2015 more than 50 NGOs received presidential grants on this topic, the authors of the conclusion indicated. However, some of these programs, such as “Strengthening the unity of the Russian nation and the ethno-cultural development of the peoples of Russia (2014-2020)” and the St. Petersburg program “Tolerance” (2011-2015), have been criticized for the emphasis of a number of activities within their framework on themes of patriotism, preservation of traditions, protection of ethnic Russians and religious themes, the commission found. The initiative of President Vladimir Putin to create the Russian Schoolchildren Movement and the approval of the state program “Patriotic Education of Citizens of the Russian Federation for 2016-2020” were regarded by ECRI as signs of a “ return to the promotion of the military ideology of Soviet times .”
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