Unlawful anti-extremism in July 2020

We we publish an overview of the main and most significant events in the field of illegal application of anti-extremist legislation in Russia in July 2020.

Rulemaking

In mid-July, the State Duma adopted in the first reading a government bill on amendments to Art. 9 and 10 of the law "On counteracting extremist activity", according to which the courts making decisions concerning prohibition or suspension of the activities of an organization as extremist, must send the decision to the Ministry of Justice for inclusion in the relevant list within three days. Now the inclusion of banned organizations in the list takes up to five years.

At the end of the month, the President signed the bill amending in Art. 1 of the law "On counteracting extremist activity". Corresponding the bill was submitted to the State Duma on July 8, quickly overcame all three reading and was approved by the Federation Council. According to the law, the wording included in the definition of extremism "violent change in the foundations of the constitutional order and violation of integrity of the Russian Federation" is replaced by the following: "violent change in the foundations of the constitutional order and (or) violation territorial integrity of the Russian Federation (including alienation of part territory of the Russian Federation) with the exception of delimitation, demarcation, redemarcation of the state border of the Russian Federation with adjacent states.” Thus, the law “On Counteracting extremist activity" will be brought into line with the new edition of the Constitution of Russia. Also under consideration by the State Duma there are amendments to the Criminal Code and the Code of Administrative Offenses on punishment for separatism and calls for it. Art. 280.1 CC (public calls to the implementation of actions aimed at violating the territorial integrity RF) should be supplemented by the mechanism of administrative prejudice: at the first violation within one year, liability will follow under the new article Code of Administrative Offenses 20.3.2 with the same name. Part 1 of this administrative article will provide for a fine of up to sixty thousand rubles for citizens, up to one hundred thousand rubles for officials and up to three hundred thousand rubles for legal entities. Ch 2 Art. 20.3.2 will punish acts committed using the media or Internet, a fine of up to one hundred thousand rubles for citizens, up to two hundred thousand rubles for officials and up to five hundred thousand rubles for legal entities. At this is one of the types of sanctions under Part 1 of the Criminal Art. 280.1 aggravated: penalty for it will be increased and amount to four hundred thousand rubles. In addition, in the UK should be introduced Art. 280.2 (violation of the territorial integrity of the Russian Federation), punishing for "alienation of part of the territory of the Russian Federation or other actions (with the exception of delimitation, demarcation, redemarcation of the state borders of the Russian Federation) aimed at violating the territorial integrity of the Russian Federation" in the absence of signs of crimes, falling under Art. 279 and 280 ¹ UK; it provides punishment only in the form of a real term - from six to ten years. Thus, the new article will refer to an act of separatism that is neither a mutiny nor a call to secession; accordingly, it will be possible to attract either those who de facto carried out the separation of some territory, or those who somehow prepares such an act in a manner, without resorting to either public appeals or preparing an uprising.

At the beginning of the month at the bottom chamber was introduced a bill developed by the commission of the State Duma on investigation of facts of interference of foreign states in internal affairs Russia on Amendments to the Federal Law "On Information, Information technologies and information protection". Part 1 should be changed Art. 15.3 of the law: out-of-court blocking will be subject to information, containing not only "calls for riots and the implementation of extremist activity" (current version), but also "containing substantiation and (or) justification of the implementation of extremist activities, including terrorist activities." We oppose the very mechanism for extrajudicial blocking of materials on the network, since it leads to arbitrariness and abuse on the part of law enforcement agencies, and we believe that that the proposed amendments, with their vague wording, would only exacerbate situation: under the law it will be possible to bring academic research, and public discussion.

In mid-July, deputies Alexander Khinshtein and Sergei Boyarsky introduced amendments to the Code on administrative offenses (CAO) on punishment of hosting providers and site owners for evading blocking and removing content subject to removal. The deputies proposed to introduce a new article 13.41 into the Code of Administrative Offenses, according to which fines for failure to take measures to restrict access to sites (except in cases of violation copyright) should be up to 100 thousand rubles for individuals, up to 400 thousand - for officials, up to 4 million - for legal entities; fines for reoffending are doubled; ban evasion penalties extremist content should also be twice as high (and in the case of repeated violations - four times). From our point of view, acting in Russia legislation in the field of restricting the dissemination of information on the Internet has systemic shortcomings, and its use is often unreasonable and disproportionately restricts freedom of speech. Large fines not only for providers evading blocking, but also for hosters and site owners under such conditions will only exacerbate this situation.

In the second half of July the government submitted to the State Duma a draft law on amendments to the federal law "On freedom of conscience and religious associations." Among other things, the bill provides for the inclusion in the law of an indication that the head and participant religious group cannot be a foreign citizen or a person without citizenship in respect of which a decision was made on the undesirability of stay in the Russian Federation; a person included in the list of extremists and terrorists of Rosfinmonitoring; a person in respect of whom a court decision that has entered into legal force found that his actions contained signs of extremist activities; an individual whose accounts are frozen by the Interdepartmental Commission on countering the financing of terrorism. Thus, for leaders and members of religious groups are invited to disseminate the already existing legal requirements for non-profit organizations, including religious. In our opinion, these new restrictions represent yet another unreasonable interference with the right to freedom religion.

Persecution for oppositional statements

At the beginning of July 2020 at an offsite hearing in the Pskov Regional Court, a panel of three judges of the 2nd Western District Military Court recognized journalist Svetlana Prokopieva guilty of justifying terrorism in the media (part 2 of article 205.2 of the Criminal Code) and sentenced her to a fine in the amount of 500 thousand rubles with the recovery of expenses for conducting court proceedings examinations and confiscation of a mobile phone and laptop. The reason for the persecution was a radio broadcast Prokopieva "A Minute of Enlightenment", aired in the fall of 2018 on the radio station "Echo of Moscow" in Pskov" and dedicated to the causes of the explosion in the reception UFSB in Arkhangelsk. Analyzing this event, Prokopyeva reasoned that the actions of the young man who carried out the explosion were due to the repressive government policy and that there is a great risk that young people growing up in an atmosphere cruelty of the state, will respond to the state the same. In our opinion, the conviction of the journalist was unlawful, since her broadcast did not contain any claims that the ideology or practice of terrorism is correct and deserves imitation, not a word about their attractiveness or permissibility.

In July we became it is known that the investigation stopped the proceedings on the case of activists from Buryatia Nadezhda Nizovkina and Tatyana Stetsura. The activists were not informed about dismissal and learned about it by accident five months later. Nizovkin and Since 2009, Stetsura has been accused under Part 1 of Art. 282 of the Criminal Code (inciting hatred) in distribution of leaflets in Ulan-Ude, forming a "negative image" Russian military, police officers and persons working in investigative bodies, employees of the FSB and the criminal correctional system. In January 2011 The Soviet District Court of Ulan-Ude found them guilty and sentenced them to a fine of 100 thousand rubles each, but later this sentence was canceled and for nine years the case circulated between the courts and by the prosecutor's office, until, finally, it was closed due to partial discrimination of Art. 282 of the Criminal Code.

Resurrection city the Moscow Region Court arrested activist Aleksey Kholkin for five days under Art. 20.3.1 of the Code of Administrative Offenses (incitement of social hatred). According to the media, the reason for the administrative prosecution of Kholkin was the video "All we go out to protest. Power to resign", the link to which he published on his Facebook page with the aim of "inciting hatred against civil servants." There are several activists in the video, among them members of the Permanent the current meeting of the national-patriotic forces of Russia (PDS NPSR) Vladimir Filin, Elena Rokhlina, Anzhelika Latsis and Kirill Myamlin - criticize the policy of the Russian authorities and call to go to the protest rally. Nobody in video does not call for xenophobic or anti-state violence, so we We consider the persecution of Kholkin for the publication of this video unlawful. We We also believe that officials do not form a social group in need of protection against incitement to hatred, and we remind you of the order of the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation, who, back in 2011, emphasized that the limits of acceptable criticism officials more than private individuals.

In July regarding activists from the city of Babaevo in the Vologda region, a member of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation Luiza Kolosova protocol was drawn up under Art. 20.29 of the Code of Administrative Offenses (mass distribution extremist materials). The reason was the work she did in 2017 during "VKontakte" repost of the banned video of Navalny's supporters "Let's remind crooks and thieves of their manifesto-2002". Content video "Let's remember the Rogues and Thieves their Manifesto-2002", which in 2013 year was recognized as extremist and for the publication of which often harass opposition activists, comes down to listing a number of unfulfilled election promises of "United Russia" from the manifesto party of 2002 and the call to vote for any party other than the United Russia". We consider the ban of this video unfounded, and the persecution for its distribution - unlawful. The reason for the persecution of Kolosova was the statement of a certain "Mikheev D. Yu." repeatedly acted as a complainant in cases of extremism and in other regions of Russia. In Barnaul, the court fined a local resident Dmitry Lakeev, who kept the same video in the "Video Recordings" section of his personal VKontakte account.

In July we learned about five cases of prosecution under Art. 20.1 of the Code of Administrative Offenses (small hooliganism) for the dissemination of information expressing indecently disrespect for authority or society. Recall that we believe that 3-5 art. 20.1 The Code of Administrative Offenses is aimed at suppressing criticism of the activities of the authorities: the last and before the introduction of these amendments were sufficiently protected by other rules legislation.

Reason for imposition of a fine for hours. 3 Article. 20.1 of the Code of Administrative Offenses against Andrey Mitin from Prokopyevsk Kemerovo region and the coordinator of Navalny's headquarters from Krasnodar Lev Gyammer served as sharp, but not obscene statements in social networks addressed to the president; the first was fined 30,000 rubles, the second - 80,000 rubles. in Yeysk Krasnodar Territory, a local resident Nikolai Makukhin received a fine of 30 thousand Part 4 Art. 20.1 of the Code of Administrative Offenses for a comment on Facebook that "thinks that Roldugin's billions are Putin's money that he stole from the Russian people for 20 years". Political scientist Fyodor Krasheninnikov from Yekaterinburg was arrested for seven days for having repeatedly spoken rudely in his Telegram channel about Russian judges. In Rostov-on-Don, the protocol under Part 3 of Art. 20.1 of the Code of Administrative Offenses was compiled against Moscow activist Vera Oleinikova because of a photograph in Instagram with a poster, the inscription on which rudely characterized the police.

Supreme Court of Tatarstan In July, the book Hidden History of the Tatars was recognized as extremist. The national liberation struggle of the Tatar people in the XVI-XVIII centuries for creation of an independent state" writer and journalist Vakhit Imamov, published in 1994. Imamov is going to challenge the decision. Book Imamova is a popular retelling of events from the history of the uprisings peoples of the Volga region of the 16th–18th centuries, addressed, according to the annotation, "in primarily to students of schools and gymnasiums of Tatarstan as an additional allowance on the history of the native land". The book, written in 1991, is indeed contains a positive assessment of the struggle of the Tatars for independence and national rights and against the "colonial oppression" of tsarist Russia. At the end of labor Imamov says that "the struggle for the creation of an independent The dictates of the state, which began 440 years ago, continue today." which fully reflects the situation in the early 1990s, when the new status of republics of the former USSR. All this, in our opinion, does not give any grounds for banning the book as extremist today. It can be assumed that the ban work of Vakhit Imamov, Honored Cultural Worker, became for republican authorities as another step towards the fight against local nationalists.

Abuse at application of norms on propaganda of Nazism

In July GSU SK of Russia announced the initiation of two cases under Part 1 of Art. 354.1 of the Criminal Code (rehabilitation of Nazism) in connection with the publication of photographs of Nazis on the websites of the action "Immortal regiment". According to the department, a resident of Kemerovo Dmitry Borodaenko no later than On May 6, he posted a photograph of Adolf Hitler on the "Memory Bank" website, and Maxim Gusev from Perm uploaded a photo to the same site no later than May 6 SS Gruppenfuehrer Andrei Shkuro. Previously for similar actions committed in this May, criminal cases were initiated against seven residents of different regions of Russia, and the investigation of two of them was completed in July. We We believe that the actions of network users are qualified incorrectly. Loading photographs of Nazi leaders on the site, even on the occasion of May 9, is not in itself is neither a public approval of the crimes of Nazism, nor the dissemination of any any information about the day of military glory of Russia.

In addition, in the middle of the month, the case under Part 3 of Art. 354.1 CC (desecration of the symbols of military glory of Russia, committed publicly) was a case was initiated against Kemerovo blogger Mikhail Alferov; the occasion was video that Alferov posted on YouTube on May 9, 2020. On video he, walking around the city, in harsh terms, criticized the large-scale decoration city ​​on Victory Day, contrasting with the unsatisfactory condition of residential houses, and expressed dissatisfaction with the use of the St. George ribbon, including demanded that the police take her off her uniform. From our point vision, statements about certain symbols, even if they are regarded as offensive, should not be equated with defiling the symbol itself (by the way, the very concept of "symbols of military glory" in Russian legislation not disclosed). In connection with the video against Alferov, a protocol was also drawn up on Part 3 Art. 20.1 of the Code of Administrative Offenses, however, the court returned it due to the fact that it was compiled by unauthorized persons.

At the end of June, Ostankinsky the district court of Moscow fined under Part 1 of Art. 20.3 of the Code of Administrative Offenses (public demonstration symbols of an extremist organization) TV presenter Yevgeny Kolesov per thousand rubles and NGO "Force of Law", one of the founders of which is Kolesov and which is engaged in the fight against swindlers, for 10 thousand rubles for use in the logo on the website of the Svarogov Square organization. This symbol was used by the nationalist organization "Northern Brotherhood", which was declared extremist in 2012. Kolesov himself claims that he used this sign, since he considers it an ancient Slavic amulet, and expressed intention to appeal the decisions of the Ostankino court. Evidence of propaganda ideology of the "Northern Brotherhood" in the activities of Kolesov and his We did not find the organization, therefore we are inclined to believe that the fines under Art. 20.3 Administrative Codes were wrongfully assigned to them. From our point of view, to punish demonstration of prohibited symbols should only be in cases where speech It is about propagating the corresponding ideology.

Moscow in July Tverskoy District Court under Part 1 of Art. 20.3 of the Code of Administrative Offenses appointed 15 days administrative arrest of "Group24" activists Mahmadjon Rakhmatjoni and Shobudin Badalov. The reason was the picket they held on 9 May near Red Square. Trying to draw attention to rights violations people in Tajikistan, Rakhmatjoni and Badalov were holding posters with portraits of Adolf Hitler and Emomali Rahmon, President of Tajikistan, and signed "The difference between dictators." On the form of Hitler was noticeable Nazi swastika. We consider the arrest of Rakhmatjoni and Badalov unlawful, since the action was obviously based on the idea of ​​Nazism as an unacceptable ideology.

The pursuit religious organizations and believers

Falun Gong

At the end of the month the Supreme Court of the Republic Khakassia refused to satisfy the claim of the prosecutor's office of the republic on the liquidation and recognition of the extremist Khakass regional public organization spiritual and physical self-improvement of a person according to the Great Law Falun Falun Dafa. Recall the new religious movement "Falun Dafa" is built around the practice of qigong gymnastics combined with elements of Buddhism, Taoism, Confucianism. It is prohibited and prosecuted in China; in turn, adherents of the doctrine abroad sharply criticize Chinese authorities. The Khakass organization was accused of trying to distribute the treatise "Zhuan Falun" written by the founder of Falun Dafa" by Li Hongzhi; the treatise was declared extremist in 2011. According to the followers of the practice of "Falun Gong", Khakass organization Falun Dafa Founded in 2006 Ceased Operations in 2017 year, and tried to notify the state authorities about it. Treatise Zhuan Falun has been labeled as extremist on the grounds that it promotes the superiority of adherents of the Falun Gong ideology over other people. From our point of view, propaganda of the truth of one's own beliefs cannot be regarded as inciting hatred, and calls for the book does not contain violence, so the ban on the book and prosecution for it distribution is illegal. We welcome the decision of the court which refused ban the organization, but we remind you that the followers of Falun Dafa may face further harassment as the activities of seven foreign and international organizations of the movement was declared undesirable on territory of Russia.

Muslims

In July we learned about two previous convictions for involvement in an Islamic radical party Hizb ut-Tahrir, which is recognized as terrorist in Russia. March 11, 2020 year, the Central District Military Court in Yekaterinburg sentenced a resident Chistopol Ildar Akhmetzyanov under Part 1 of Art. 205.5 of the Criminal Code (organization activities of a terrorist organization) to 17 years in prison with serving in a strict regime colony. Akhmetzyanov is appealing the verdict. May 13, 2020 year, the same court sentenced Rais Gimadiyev under the same article, he received 16 years in a strict regime colony.

Together with previously convicted Eduard Nizamov, Akhmetzyanova and Gimadiyev was accused of involving Muslims in the ranks of Hizb ut-Tahrir", and also created a closed network network in Russia structure and contributed to the replenishment of combat formations operating on Middle East. As far as we know, Hizb ut-Tahrir does not resorts to terrorist methods of struggle and does not participate in the recruitment of personnel to participate in hostilities in the Middle East countries. Therefore we consider wrongfully accusing the followers of this banned party of terrorist articles only on the basis of party activities (carrying out meetings, reading literature, etc.).

Early July in Crimea after a series of searches, seven Muslims were detained. The arrests were made in as part of the next investigation on cc. 1 and 2 Art. 205.5 of the Criminal Code (organization activities of, or participation in, a terrorist organization). Ismet Ibragimov and Vadim Bektemirov were detained near Simferopol, Emil Ziyadinov - in the village of Oktyabrsky, Seyran Khairetdinov, Alim Sufyanov and Alexander Sizikov (disabled person of the first group, blind) - in the Bakhchisaray district, Zekirya Muratov - in Alushta. In Alushta, they also came to Dilyaver Memetov with a search, but he himself at that moment was not at home, he was put on the wanted list. The FSB announced the seizure of time of searches of prohibited materials by Hizb ut-Tahrir, relatives detainees - about the planting of such materials. Sizikov was sent to home arrest, the rest - in jail.

On the last day of the month The FSB, the National Guard and the Ministry of Internal Affairs reported on the arrest of six alleged supporters of the Tablighi Jamaat movement banned in Russia in within the framework of the investigation of the case under Part 1 of Art. 282.2 of the Criminal Code (organization of activities extremist organization). Religious movement "Tablighi Jamaat" was banned in Russia in 2009, in our opinion, without proper grounds. This association was engaged in the propaganda of fundamentalist Islam sense, but was not seen in any calls for violence, and therefore the persecution of his supporters, from our point of view, is unjustified.

Witnesses Jehovah

In the end of the month Furmanovsky city court of the Ivanovo region recognized 34-year-old Evgeny Spirin guilty of organizing the activities of an extremist organization under Part 1 Art. 282.2 of the Criminal Code and decided to fine him 500 thousand rubles. According to investigation, Spirin convened and held meetings of the local community and talked with residents Ivanovo region about religion in order to promote the activities of this organization. The prosecutor asked to be sentenced to seven years in prison. Recall we are convinced of the illegality of the ban on organizations of Jehovah's Witnesses in Russia as extremist and persecution of believers for continuing the activities of their communities.

In July we learned and new cases of persecution of Jehovah's Witnesses.

At the end of June, the FSB Russia in the Krasnodar Territory opened two new cases under Part 2 of Art. 282.2 CC (participation in the activities of an extremist organization) in relation to Vladimir Skachidub and Maxim Beltikov from the village of Pavlovskaya; investigation states that they played the role of preachers. Signatures not to leave were taken from them.

At the beginning of July six believers of Vladivostok who were witnesses in the case of Elena Barmakina, were included in the list of Rosfinmonitoring. In the list of those involved extremist or terrorist activities hit five women and one a man aged 29 to 60: Nina Astvatsaturova, Roman and Violetta Verigin, Ludwig and Eva Katanaeva and Elena Zorn; they were later searched. By at least five detainees became suspects in the case. Nina Astvatsaturova was charged under Part 2 of Art. 282.2 of the Criminal Code.

In Kaliningrad it was a criminal case was initiated, Mikhail Kopytov became a defendant, in the homes of local Jehovah's Witnesses were searched, 12 people were detained and interrogated.

In Prokopyevsk Kemerovo region in the framework of the investigation of a criminal case under Part 1 of Art. 282.2 CC a series of searches took place, Andrey Vlasov and Viktor Mikhnyuk were interrogated. Vlasov was placed under house arrest.

In mid-July in Voronezh area within the framework of the investigation of two criminal cases under Part 1 of Art. 282.2 of the Criminal Code activities of the local banned community searched at least 110 houses followers of the teachings of Jehovah's Witnesses. At least 14 people were interrogated. Two believers reported being severely beaten for refusing to share their passwords smartphones. Later, another of the detainees reported that he was tortured during interrogation. in the regional department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs - they beat me in the face and put a plastic bag on head, demanding to name the elders of the community. The suspects in the case were Alexei Antyukhin, Sergey Baev, Mikhail Veselov, Yuri Galka, Valery Gursky, Vitaly Nerush, Stepan Pankratov, Igor Popov, Evgeny Sokolov, Anatoly Yagupov. All ten were arrested.

In Seversk Tomsk area in the framework of the investigation of a criminal case under Part. 1 Article. 282.2 CC passed searches at five addresses of Jehovah's Witnesses, nine people were taken to interrogation and then released; one of the believers Sergei Korotun was sent under House arrest.

In Solikamsk Permsky regions were searched at three addresses of Jehovah's Witnesses, six people were detained, two suspects, Vladimir Timoshkin and Vladimir Poltoradnev, were sent under house arrest, another believer banned from certain actions.