The most "extremist" regions of Russia

August 10 on the portal TJournal published an article "The Most Extremist Regions of Russia", which is interesting for the visual presentation of data on the website of the General prosecutor's office crimestat.ru .

The authors, relying on these data noted an abnormal increase in the number of criminal cases against anti-extremist orientation in certain regions.

For the first six months of 2018 2009, 762 extremist crimes were registered in Russia orientation (let us explain that these include cases of “extremist speeches”, about membership in various groups and about common crimes hate motive). In first place is Moscow (46 registrations), followed by Kabardino-Balkaria (25), Dagestan (23), Perm Territory (22) and Kurgan and Moscow region (21 each). No crimes were recorded in Kalmykia, North Ossetia and Chukotka. Altai Territory - one of the anomalies - is present in the top ten regions for the registration of extremist crimes since 2011 year, and at the end of 2017 he was the seventh. When moving from absolute numbers to calculations taking into account the population living in the regions, the Altai Territory is omitted to 27th place, but its small neighbor rises up - the Altai Republic, which occupies Line 2 is another anomaly. It also turns out that 1 place, according to incomprehensible reasons, belongs to the Republic of Karelia, but only two Caucasian regions - Ingushetia and Kabardino-Balkaria.

In an attempt to explain the Altai and the Karelian anomaly, the authors examined the ethnic composition of these regions, the level of terrorist activity in them, their economic indicators and other factors that could serve as the reason for the leadership of these regions in the ranking number of anti-extremist cases. In the case of the Republic of Karelia, the authors leave this question is open, and for Altai it is assumed that the level extremism here is artificially increased by local law enforcement officers, who carry out a plan.

Also in the article the mechanics of initiating cases in the framework of the fight against extremism is considered, it is plausible it is shown that the number of such cases depends not so much on objective indicators of the characteristics of the local population, how much of the activity law enforcement officers. Total figures are given (albeit with errors) anti-extremist law enforcement and at the same time, as noted, it is impossible determine how many of them were initiated only for reposting pictures, and how much for publishing original calls for violence and the seizure of power, i.e. behind really dangerous propaganda.

The article also noted one important thing: “ in the first half of 2018 compared to the same period of 2017 registered crimes of extremist focus has decreased by 10%, and cases brought to court - by 14% less ." It should be noted that such a decrease is extremely atypical for the last ten years. But this dynamics, of course, remains multidirectional across regions.

Sources

• The most extremist regions of Russia // TJournal. 2018. August 10.