Russian programmer writes script tracking listed ‘extremists,’ and gets a hello on Twitter from a wanted man

Ivan Shukshin, a Russian web-programmer based in Gelendzhik, wrote a script that registers changes to the Federal Financial Monitoring Agency’s list of “extremists and terrorists.” One of the quirks about Rosfinmonitoring’s registry is that people tend to end up on the list before a court actually convicts them of a felony offense (for example, hate speech). The consequences of being named by Rosfinmonitoring take effect immediately: individuals can’t do any banking on Russian soil, and any electronic payment wallets are also blocked. The list started attracting public attention in July 2018, when it turned out that it names several Internet users currently charged with offending religious sensitivities because they shared sacrilegious memes.

Shukshin’s script started working on August 7, and within two days it had uncovered 45 new additions to Rosfinmonitoring’s list. Many of the listed “extremists and terrorists” were young people (“32 of them are younger than me!” Shukshin tweeted), including 12 people from Ufa.

On Twitter, one of the newly listed “extremists” — a man on Russia’s federal wanted list — answered Shukshin. Twitter user @Dengnv14 says he’s Denis Ganeev, a man wanted by police for his involvement in the “Belaya Reka” (White River) extremist group. Back in 2016, Ganeev’s group reportedly “displayed Nazi symbols in public” and “started fights in honor of the Nazi leader,” posting supposedly extremist materials online. “Congratulate me! I’m on the list!” Ganeev tweeted.

Ganeev later revealed that he only learned about his appearance on Rosfinmonitoring’s list thanks to Shukshin’s computer script. Studying the new names added to the registry, Ganeev claimed that not all the members of his group made it to the list, though officials didn’t leave off Nikita Myasnikov, a man he says was “framed” as the ringleader. (In May 2018, a court in Bashkiria fined a 27-year-old man for being the supposed organizer of the White River group. The man’s name was never made public, but he is three years older than Myasnikov.)

Rosfinmonitoring lists the names of 8,500 people, roughly 7,000 of whom are identified as “terrorists.” Studying changes in the data, Shukshin discovered that “Khushvakht Saidov” disappeared from the list and then reappeared, now with an asterisk beside his name. Rosfinmonitoring doesn’t say what the asterisk means, but according to Rossiyskaya Gazeta (the federal government’s official newspaper of record), the marking signifies “organizations and private entities with known connections to terrorism.” Most of the names on Rosfinmonitoring’s list have asterisks. (Meduza only found about 1,500 entries without asterisks.)

In Saidov’s case, the asterisk means his initial extremism conviction was overturned in favor of a terrorism conviction. Prosecutors asked the Supreme Court to overturn his first ruling, and in March 2018 the case went back to trial at a military court in Russia’s Far East, where the second verdict was a mystery. (Online, almost all of the court’s recent decisions are classified.)

Rosfinmonitoring’s website only shows the last 15 people who were unlisted from the “extremist” registry. In fact, far more people have come and gone. Ivan Shukshin points out that the list of people removed from the “extremists” is constantly changing, meaning that he would have needed to start monitoring the website from the beginning to know how many individuals in total have been unlisted. Judging by the latest updates from Rossiyskaya Gazeta, moreover, the list generally gets about twice as many additions as subtractions.

Shukshin analyzed Rossiyskaya Gazeta’s 2018 data on individuals added and removed from the “extremist list” (published on a monthly basis) and learned that the ratio is consistent: 1,107 new entries and 498 removals. People are removed from the list when the criminal cases against them are closed or when their sentences have expired.

Story by Sultan Suleimanov, translation by Ivan Kh and Kevin Rothrock