Racism and Xenophobia in June 2018

The following is our monthly review of instances of xenophobia and radical nationalism, along with any government countermeasures, for June 2018. It is based on material gathered by SOVA Center in the course of our daily monitoring.

In June 2018, at least seven were injured during acts of xenophobic violence in Moscow and the Novosibirsk and Samara regions. In total, since the start of the year, three were killed and 12 injured due to xenophobic attacks. Such incidents were recorded in six Russian regions.

In June, SOVA Center only learned about one act of vandalism against a religious object: the assault on a mosque occurred in Belogorsk. In total, since the start of 2018, we recorded eight acts of vandalism motivated by xenophobia in seven Russian regions.

In June, nationalists participated in several opposition demonstrations. On June 10, the ultra-right-wing group, the Right Bloc, along with the associated organization, “For Popular Sovereignty,” took part in the opposition protest “For a Free Russia without Repression and Arbitrariness.” This protest took place on Sakharov Prospect and was organized by members of the liberal opposition. The nationalists that participated in the demonstration were about 15 people with imperial flags and flags from the “For Popular Sovereignty” movement. There were still fewer nationalists the next day from the National Democratic Party (NDP) and the Russian United National Alliance (RОNA) at a similar demonstration in St. Petersburg.

It is worth noting the World Congress of Peace Forces, which was organized by the Liberal Democratic Party of Russia (LDPR) on June 7 at the State Duma building in Moscow. Ultra-right-wing groups also took part in the conference: Russia’s “Slavic Union and Revival,” the National Democratic Party of Germany (Nationaldemokratische Partei Deutschlands), and the Nordic Resistance Movement (Nordiska motståndsrörelsen, which is active in five Northern European countries, but banned in Finland).

In June, SOVA Center did not learn about any convictions for racist violence in which the court recognized the attack as motivated by hate. For the first half of the year, the courts issued at least six convictions for violent crimes motivated by hate. During these proceedings, 31 were convicted in five Russian regions.

Courts delivered 11 guilty verdicts for xenophobic statements in 12 Russian regions in June. This data is provided without account of the convictions that we determined to be inappropriate. Twelve were convicted in these proceedings. All the defendants were convicted for sharing videos and racist statements, which called for attacking natives of the Caucasus region and Central Asia.

In total, since the start of the year we learned about 97 convictions for xenophobic statements against 98 people in 49 Russian regions.

In June, the Federal List of Extremist Materials was updated twice (on June 13 and 15); items 4452-4464 were added. Various xenophobic materials were added to the list including anti-Semitic video clips that were published by ultra-right-wing Stalinist blogger Parseghian, songs by the group M8l8th (which stands for “Hitler’s Hammer”), the Russian translation of the book Faith and Action by SS Brigadeführer Helmut Stellrecht, and islamic materials, including Sherif Abdel Azeem’s book Women in Islam Versus Women in the Judeo-Christian Tradition: The Myth and The Reality.