Unlawful anti-extremism in July 2016

We publish an overview of the main and most significant events in the field of misuse of anti-extremist legislation in Russia in July 2016.

Rulemaking

On July 7, 2016, Vladimir Putin signed "anti-terrorism package" of two bills, known as "Yarovaya package". Recall that the package adds almost nothing to the real opportunities to protect public safety, but in a significant way encroaches on fundamental human rights and is accepted, as it seems, in the first place with purpose of demonstrating determination in the "fight against terrorism and extremism." The "package" creates new tools for selective pressure on Internet campaigns, religious associations and individual citizens. "Package" introduces unprecedented measures such as long-term storage electronic communications data at the expense of their providers for convenience law enforcement agencies, criminal liability for failure to report on a number of crimes, expands the criminal responsibility of adolescents from 14 to 16 years old, increases penalties without any reasonable grounds under articles relating to anti-terrorist and anti-extremist, introduces extremely carelessly formulated restrictions on missionary activity (previous one and a half for decades they were rejected by all branches of government), etc.

It should be noted that the parliamentarians themselves doubt the possibility of implementing the provisions of the "package" related to storage information. On July 19, 2016, Anton Belyakov, a member of the Federation Council, introduced State Duma bill postponing the entry into force of the rules on the storage of negotiations citizens. The senator proposed to put them into effect not from July 1, 2018, but only from July 1, 2023. Belyakov pointed out that the implementation of the rules on data storage in in its current form will entail tremendous losses for operators, an increase in the cost of their services and stop the development of the industry, and in addition, the provision of keys for deciphering coded conversations in a significant part of the cases is technically unfeasible due to the use of end-to-end encryption.

Criminal prosecution

In the first days of July it became known that within the framework of investigation of the criminal case, the FSB officers seized the correspondence publicist Andrei Piontkovsky with the editors of the radio station "Echo of Moscow". Two employees of the Internet editorial office of "Echo", including its chief editor Vitaly Ruvinsky was summoned for questioning. Investigations were carried out in as part of the criminal case initiated on the fact of the publication in January on the blog Piontkovsky on the website of "Echo of Moscow" article "The bomb, ready explode". In a press release, the FSB indicates that this article contained calls " to the violation of the territorial integrity of Russia and the commission of actions, aimed at inciting hatred and enmity on a national basis " (which corresponds to the composition of Articles 280.1 and 282 of the Criminal Code). Piontkovsky himself has not yet is the defendant in this case. Recall that the publicist left Russia, when he learned about the possible initiation of a criminal case. Article "Bomb, ready to explode" is dedicated to the crisis in relations between the Russian and Chechen peoples. Initially, the text ended with the words that, in order to avoid catastrophe, Chechnya should be given full independence, but through some time after the publication of the text, these words were removed. From our point view, persecution deserves only calls for violent separatism, but there were no such appeals in Piontkovsky's article. We did not find in the text and statements inciting hatred on ethnic grounds.

At the end of July, the Elista City Court of the Republic Kalmykia issued a verdict against Said Osmanov, who desecrated the statue of Buddha. Dagestan athlete was found guilty under Part 2 of Art. 148 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (insulting religious feelings believers, committed in places specially designated for services) and according to part 1 of Art. 282 of the Criminal Code (inciting hatred or enmity). Court sentenced him to imprisonment for a period of 2 years probation with probationary period of 1 year. Recall that on the night of April 2, 2016, the Dagestan athlete Said Osmanov, who arrived in Elista for freestyle wrestling competitions, along with teammates went to a Buddhist temple, urinated there and hit foot in the nose of a Buddha statue. Osmanov published a video recording the act of vandalism in the Internet. We do not deny Osmanov's guilt, but we doubt the legitimacy sentence for incitement to hatred, because neither in the media nor in the messages law enforcement agencies did not mention that Osmanov spoke out about anything while staying at a Buddhist temple. We also think that the application to Osmanov of both articles of the Criminal Code, 148 and 282, is in fact a double punishment for the same act.

In mid-July, the Sovetsky District Court of Chelyabinsk extended the term for six months. forced treatment in a psychiatric hospital to a local activist, creator of the Church of the Chelyabinsk meteorite Alexei Moroshkin, known under the pseudonym Andrew Breiva. Recall that Moroshkin was accused under Part 2 of Art. 280.1 CC (public calls for separatism via the Internet) for the publication in April-March 2015 on the community page "For a fighting Ukraine! For a free Ural! Together against evil!" texts calling for the separation of the Urals from Russia and the creation of the Siberian Federal Union (12 episodes). November 2015 Moroshkin was released from criminal liability and sent to compulsory treatment in the Chelyabinsk Regional Specialized Psychoneurological Hospital No. 1 after he was diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia" with the wording "nonsense of religious reformism sense". We did not have the opportunity to familiarize ourselves with all the texts of Moroshkin, however, those posts that we saw did not contain calls for real, thoughtful actions that can lead to the implementation of such plans. We we think that Art. 280.1 of the Criminal Code unduly restricts freedom of speech, and harassment appropriate only for calls for violent separatism. Staging psychiatric diagnosis in connection with the ironic statements about the creation of the Church of Chelyabinsk meteorite causes us bewilderment, and the conclusion about the need to isolate Moroshkin, we also consider unconvincing. Human Rights Center Memorial recognized Moroshkin as a political prisoner in July.

Administrative persecution

In July it became known that under Art. 20.29 of the Code of Administrative Offenses for possession of brochures of Jehovah's Witnesses recognized as extremist, with two religious organizations of Jehovah's Witnesses were fined for distribution - in Stavropol for 100 thousand rubles and in Nizhny Tagil, Sverdlovsk region for that the same amount. We regard the ban on the literature of Jehovah's Witnesses, the liquidation of their communities and persecution of believers as religious discrimination.

In July, it became known that at the end of June the verdict came into force. Belokalitvinsky City Court of the Rostov Region against an employee police D. Eliseev. In 2015, detective Eliseev threatened a local resident A. Minaev, who was twice brought to administrative responsibility for posting an extremist video on your page and images of the swastika, the initiation of a new administrative case under Art. 20.29 Code of Administrative Offenses, if the latter does not publish a swastika on his page. At the same time, the policeman promised Minaev that he would pay the fine himself. for the demonstration of Nazi symbols (Article 20.3 of the Code of Administrative Offenses). Minaev agreed, but recorded the conversation on a dictaphone and turned to the prosecutor's office. Eliseev pleaded guilty. He was sentenced for abuse of office (part 1 of Art. 285 of the Criminal Code) and official forgery (part 2 of article 292 of the Criminal Code) to 2 years and 3 months in prison conditionally and amnestied. According to the court, detective Eliseev wanted to " embellish the real situation on indicators in the work to identify violations of extremist orientation ", did not want to carry out time-consuming verification activities, but wanted to " receive positive assessment of his work and promotions in the service, bonus payments for achieved indicators ". We believe that this case is clearly characterizes the current practice of anti-extremist law enforcement, with which law enforcement officers on the ground are primarily interested in only in the growth of quantitative indicators.