The AUE movement is recognized as extremist

The court banned the international public movement "Prisoner Criminal Unity".

On August 17, 2020, the Supreme Court satisfied the claim of the General Prosecutor's Office and recognized the public movement "Prisoner Criminal Unity" as extremist.

From the point of view of the prosecutor's office, "AUE is a well-structured and managed organization", whose members "are involved, among other things, in organizing mass riots", and its ideology "poses a real threat to the life and health of citizens, society and the state."

The decision to recognize the AUE as an extremist organization seems doubtful to us. Firstly, in our opinion, AUE does not represent a single structure. Secondly, the ideology of the underworld (and the AUE subculture) is focused on illegal activities and is conceptually incompatible with the implementation of the constitutional rights of citizens, but this ideology is not political and is not aimed at changing the constitutional order. Therefore, we believe that the activity of its distribution should not be the subject of anti-extremist legal regulation, although in principle it can be criminalized. Perhaps, for the organizers of structures that exploit criminal topics and incite violence, a new criminal norm should be provided, similar in composition to Part 1 of Art. 239 of the Criminal Code (creation of a public association whose activities involve violence against citizens).

Sources

• At the suit of the Prosecutor General of the Russian Federation Igor Krasnov, the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation banned the activities of the international public movement "Prisoner Criminal Unity" // Prosecutor General's Office of the Russian Federation. 2020. August 17.
• The Supreme Court recognized the AUE* movement as extremist // RIA News. 2020. August 17.
• The Supreme Court banned the AUE* movement in Russia // Gazeta.ru. 2020. August 12.