Unlawful anti-extremism in August 2020

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

Rulemaking

In mid-August, it became known that Senator Alexander Bashkin submitted to the State Duma draft law on counteracting the spread of "criminal subcultures".

According to the text of the bill, in the Federal Law "On the fundamentals of the crime prevention system in the Russian Federation" it is proposed to introduce a definition of "criminal subcultures" as "a system of principles, attitudes, lifestyles and norms of behavior, shared by a group of people informally uniting to popularize and promote criminal traditions, paraphernalia of the criminal world, manifestations of intolerance towards law-abiding behavior and justification of criminal behavior". It is also planned to supplement the law detailed definition of "activities for the formation and support of criminal subculture", which includes a number of acts, including the public justification of "criminal actions of persons convicted of intentional crimes", "obstruction correction of convicts or calls for non-fulfillment of the main duties of convicts, coercion to provide assistance to convicts, posting on the network "information containing ideology of the criminal subculture", etc., as well as "inciting hatred or enmity towards employees of law enforcement agencies, justice, prosecutors and the penitentiary system, to judges in connection with the execution by them of the relevant powers" and the promotion of all of the above. Thus, structurally this definition is explicitly built on the same principle as the definition extremist activity.

"Information aimed at the implementation of activities on the formation and support of the criminal subculture" it is proposed to add in the list of grounds for including resources in the Unified Register of Prohibited Sites. The bill is a continuation of measures to combat the AUE subculture, which August 17 was banned as a single extremist organization, which in fact is not. However, if accepted of such a law, its scope may be much broader than the fight against a specific subculture. Executive representatives will have the opportunity, if desired, to bring under the fuzzy definitions contained in it both public discussion of controversial cases, and the provision of public or human rights assistance to prisoners, and suppress such initiatives by blocking information about them.

It is possible that such a consequence as tightening censorship in the cultural field. Meanwhile, it is obvious that with the romanticization of crime it is useless fight with restrictive, violent measures: it is a matter of building trust society to the judicial and penitentiary systems, the issue of working with public morality and public opinion in the spirit of rejection of the cult of violence. Note also the redundancy the norm proposed by Bashkin: protection of representatives power in execution, to which the bill is partly directed, is provided with a whole a number of criminal articles, and propaganda of hatred against them, which is not a specific feature of the AUE subculture and therefore should not be considered specifically in its context, is currently subject to anti-extremist norms.

Persecution of social activists

In the middle of the month, the Oktyabrsky District Court of Novorossiysk returned the case to the prosecutor ex-major of the Ministry of Internal Affairs Alexei Dymovsky, accused of illegal storage and transportation explosives (part 1 of article 222.1 of the Criminal Code) and public calls for extremist activity, committed on the Internet (part 2 of article 280 of the Criminal Code). At the same time, the court changed his preventive measure from detention to house arrest. The accusation brought Dymovsky, is associated with a video called "Aleksey Dymovsky: I thought to kill Putin...", which was recorded on October 14, 2019. In the video, Dymovsky travels around Novorossiysk by taxi to the police department in order to voluntarily hand over the found explosives that the police did not take away at his signal. In doing so, he explains that he kept TNT at home for several years, because he "wanted to use this TNT against Putin Vladimir Vladimirovich", but subsequently abandoned these thoughts, because he came to the conclusion that Putin - "a mentally ill person." On the video, Dymovsky also calls on all honest people to unite and invites them to a meeting. After recording the video, the car with Dymovsky was stopped by employees DPS, to which he decided to voluntarily give out TNT, after which he was interviewed by the police, however, a few days later he was arrested on charges of illegal storage and transportation explosives. From our point of view, the prosecution under Art. 280 of the Criminal Code unlawfully, because it does not contain any calls for violence against the President or other officials, and the call to unite all honest people has a peaceful character. According to lawyer, the court returned the case to the prosecutor due to the fact that some materials that the defense intended to use as exculpatory evidence Dymovsky, in particular, the protocols of interrogations of the taxi driver and the video operator, as well as a disk with the video itself, on which the ex-major declares his intention to voluntarily hand over explosives. Alexey Dymovsky gained fame in 2009, when he publicly addressed Russian officers and Prime Minister Vladimir Putin with a story about the "stick system" and corruption in the system of the Ministry of Internal Affairs. After that he was fired from the internal affairs bodies, and a fraud case was opened against him using his official position, which was later stopped. Dymovsky's performance became a notable event in the public discussion before the reform of the Ministry of Internal Affairs.

In mid-August, Leninsky district Perm court delivered a verdict in the case of hooliganism committed by an organized group (part 2 of article 213 of the Criminal Code), which was initiated on the fact of the action with tying to a pole mannequin of Vladimir Putin. Alexander Shabarchin and Danila Vasiliev were recognized guilty; Shabarchin was sentenced to two years in a penal colony, and Vasiliev - to one year of probation. Alexander Etkin (Kotov) was acquitted. Case was initiated in connection with a public action: on one of the streets of Perm on November 11, 2018 year, an installation appeared in the form of a mannequin depicting Putin in a prison uniform and with the inscriptions "liar" and "war criminal Pynya VV"; later a video appeared on the YouTube channel "Thunderstorm of Perm", in which people in camouflage uniforms guide a masked man with Putin's face through the center of Perm, and then they tie a figure with a photograph of the president to a pole near the local central department store. Several examinations were carried out on the case, two of them were not identified in video of manifestations of hatred or enmity, and the third and fourth found in actions, captured on video, signs of political and ideological hatred, as well as hatred towards Putin's supporters as a social group. However, the court excluded the motive of social hatred from the charge, pointing out that that "citizens who support Putin" are not a social group. We welcome this part of the court's decision. On the other hand, we doubt that the investigation had sufficient grounds to qualify the tying of the dummy to the post as hooliganism, that is, a gross violation of public order.

In the second half of August, Central the district military court in Samara sentenced an activist of the Bashkir national movement Airat Dilmukhametov to nine years in a strict regime colony with a ban on administering sites for three years. Earlier, between March 2019 until January 2020, Dilmukhametov was charged under Part 2 of Art. 280.1 UK (public calls for separatism) for publishing a video message, as well as for speaking on the radio "Echo of Moscow in Ufa" about his concept of the Fourth Bashkir Republic; according to part 2 of Art. 205.2 CC (public justification of terrorism committed on the Internet) for a video with his reaction to the persecution of members of the radical Hizb ut-Tahrir party, which is banned in Russia as terrorist; according to part 1 of Art. 280 of the Criminal Code (public appeals to extremist activity) for speaking out about Chechens; according to part 1 of Art. 282.3 CC (financing of extremist activities) for publishing appeals to collect money funds to support his struggle "for the new IV Bashkir Republic". All We tend to consider these accusations unjustified (for more details, see here , here , here and here ). In 2011, Dilmukhametov was sentenced to six years in prison for incitement to extremist activities and public acquittal terrorism, and in 2015 to three years in prison freedom, again for justifying terrorism.

In the second half of the month, the Leninsky District Court of Chelyabinsk recognized the activist "Other Russia" Alexander Kryshku guilty under Part 2 of Art. 282.2 of the Criminal Code (participation in the activities of an extremist organization) and sentenced him to two and a half years conditional imprisonment. Alexander Kryshka was detained on June 8, 2020 in Chelyabinsk together with two more activists of the unregistered Other Russia party. All three were arrested, according to investigators, the accused continued their activities. the banned National Bolshevik Party (NBP); this activity was expressed in in particular, that on April 25, 2020 they attacked the monument to the Czechoslovak legionnaires in Chelyabinsk, inflicting several blows on him with a sledgehammer and unfurling the banner "For Answer Konev!", as well as in the alleged attempt to set fire to the building of the prosecutor's office Leninsky district of Chelyabinsk in protest against the beating that happened on May 6 and rape of a detainee in the district police department. We consider the NBP ban and persecution activists for participating in it illegal.

Sanctions for the distribution of prohibited anti-government materials

At the beginning of the month Leninsky district Tyumen court fined two thousand rubles under Art. 20.29 of the Code of Administrative Offenses (dissemination of extremist materials) Ruslana Farkhutdinova. The reason for the administrative prosecution of Farkhutdinov was that in the public "Typical Tyumen" in "VKontakte" he published a picture "which depicts a man in a black mask, similar to according to the parameters of the President of the Russian Federation V.V. Putin, <...> with the inscription “Citizens of Russia Be carefull! The rating is falling, wait for the attacks. Regularity "". Recall that the phrase "Citizens of Russia, be vigilant! The rating is falling" placed on the demotivator – Wait for terrorist attacks" was banned in 2017 in St. Petersburg and included in the Federal list of extremist materials under item 4316 . This prohibition seems to us unreasonable, since it does not contain any accusations or other allegations that could be considered as extremist. Therefore, we consider the administrative prosecution of Farkhutdinov illegal.

At the end of August it became known that Babaevsky District Court of the Vologda Region under Art. 20.29 Administrative Code fined Louise Kolosova, who in 2017 published on VKontakte video of Navalny's supporters "Let's Remind the Crooks and Thieves of their Manifesto-2002". The content of this video in 2013 was recognized as extremist and for the publication often harassed by opposition activists, boils down to listing a number of unfulfilled election promises of "United Russia" from the manifesto of the party 2002 and the call to vote for any party except United Russia. We consider the ban of this video unreasonable, and the persecution for its distribution - unlawful. Kolosova was brought to justice on the basis of a statement by a certain “Mikheeva D.Yu.”, who repeatedly acted as an applicant in cases of extremism in other regions of Russia.

Sanctions for inciting hatred

On the last day of July Vakhitovsky the district court of Kazan fined the chairman of the Society of Russian Culture Mikhail Shcheglov for 10 thousand rubles under Art. 20.3.1 of the Code of Administrative Offenses (inciting hatred or enmity, as well as humiliation of human dignity). At the end of August, the Supreme Court of Tatarstan approved this is the solution. Statements for which Shcheglov was punished, he made in an open letter head of Tatarstan Rustam Minnikhanov. Speaking out against the closure of temples due to the coronavirus, he noted that such a ban on the part of the authorities looks "not as concern for people's health, but as a form of atheism and new persecution of Christians" taking place "in the very center of Orthodox Russia", and that it is "deeply symbolic for "national" republic with a certain personnel preponderance is by no means aside Orthodox believers". In our opinion, in Shcheglov's statements there is no only any calls for violence against the Muslims of Tatarstan, but also insults against them. In essence, his words are a criticism of the actions of the authorities, which he found unfair to the Orthodox. Even if interpreted these statements as creating a negative image of Muslims (who allegedly abuse dominant position in the authorities of Tatarstan), then they can only be attributed what about mild hate speech, which, in our opinion, does not constitute a reason for persecution.

In the second half of August Taganrog City Court of the Rostov Region under Art. 20.3.1 of the Code of Administrative Offenses fined 10 thousand rubles local resident Vladislav Shulgu, ex-employee of the aircraft factory. G.M.Beriev, who passes as a defendant in the case of poisoning in 2017 of employees of the plant with thallium. Linguistic signs of humiliation of human dignity were found in the following Shulga's comments, left on the portal "Ruff. Taganrog": "These are not stupid laws, but those who put them perform - criminals! Bastards are judges, scoundrels are policemen, crooks are prosecutors." From our point of view, law enforcement officers should not be considered vulnerable social group protected by anti-extremist legislation. Against, as the European Court of Human Rights has repeatedly noted , they must be exceptionally tolerable to criticism, if it is not a real threat of violence. In comments Shulga did not have any appeals at all, the author only emotionally expressed his attitude to the police, possibly due to the fact that he is in the dock. That's why we believe that the persecution of Shulgi is unlawful.

In August, we learned that the courts of Tatarstan in the summer brought to justice under Art. 20.3.1 three Tatar nationalists who spoke at a rally in memory of the defenders Kazan during the capture of the city by the troops of Ivan the Terrible, which took place in Kazan on October 12 2019. In early June, Fauzia Bayramova, chairman of the party "Ittifaq", in August 40 hours of compulsory work was given to Imam Airat Shakirov, and Deputy Chairman of the All-Tatar Public Center (VTOC) 81-year-old Galishan Nuriakhmet was fined five thousand rubles. Reason for attracting responsibility was served by the statements made by the three participants in the rally - different, but on the whole reduced to the idea of ​​the colonial policy of Russia and the need to fight with colonial oppression (we wrote more about this here ). Law enforcement and the court regarded these statements as inciting hostility towards the Russians. We don't agree with this position: in itself, a public expression of disagreement with the "colonial" policy of the federal and republican authorities is not identical with the incitement of hatred to ethnic Russians. In addition, we consider it incorrect to establish criminalization public discussion and peaceful political struggle on the status of regions, since such a policy of the authorities leads to unacceptable restrictions on freedom of expression opinions.

In August, a protocol was drawn up in Kurgan under Art. 20.29 of the Code of Administrative Offenses in relation to the artist from Yekaterinburg Polina Guzeeva. The reason was that in In 2010, Guzeeva posted a clip of the group on her page on VKontakte Alai Oli "Why did you lie down under the black one?". The song was banned in a series of xenophobic materials published by on VKontakte, which mainly contained memes with threats against Russian girls who have relationships with people of a different origin, and aggressive songs by bands popular among neo-Nazis. Item 3481 included a post, containing such a meme and links to two audio files, one of which was the song Alai Oli. The publisher, followed by law enforcement agencies and the court, took this song as racist, although it clearly makes fun of racist attitudes popular among young people from disadvantaged sleeping areas of Moscow and St. Petersburg. In this case, as in many others, the interpretation of artistic creation turned out to be for law enforcement bodies and courts is an overly difficult task, and the mistake led to an unreasonable ban works and the persecution of a number of social network users for its distribution. It should also be noted that in August 2020, when the protocol was drawn up, in p. 3481 the song did not appear, most likely, it fell out of there for technical reasons.

At the beginning of August it became known about excitation of the next two criminal cases under Art. 354.1 CC related to publication photographs of Adolf Hitler on the Immortal Regiment website in early May 2020. A 28-year-old resident of the Nyurbinsky district of the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia) was attracted to liability under part 3 (dissemination of those expressing clear disrespect for society information about the days of military glory and memorable dates of Russia related to the defense of the Fatherland, as well as the desecration of the symbols of the military glory of Russia, committed publicly), and Alexander Khoroshiltsev from Voronezh - according to part 1 of Art. 354.1 of the Criminal Code (denial of the facts established judgment of the Nuremberg Tribunal, the approval of the crimes established by this judgment, as well as the dissemination of deliberately false information about the activities of the USSR during the Second world war committed publicly). These cases became the tenth and eleventh, respectively. in a series of excited in connection with the publication of photographs of the Nazis on the site "Immortal shelf". We believe that the actions of network users are qualified incorrectly. An action such as uploading photographs of Nazi leaders to the site, even on occasion May 9, in itself, is neither a public endorsement of the crimes of Nazism, nor dissemination of any information about the day of military glory of Russia. None statements endorsing or denying Nazi crimes, these photographs, Apparently, they were not escorted.

In August, the Vologda City Court fined two thousand rubles under Part 1 of Art. 20.3 of the Code of Administrative Offenses (propaganda or public demonstration of Nazi symbols) by local activist Yevgeny Domozhirov. occasion for the persecution served a video called "Destroy. Real fascists", which Domozhirov posted on his personal page on VKontakte in May. On video activist complained about the cutting down of the square where trees were planted by veterans Great Patriotic War, and stated that local authorities behave "like the most real fascists both in relation to veterans and to this memory. "The video featured images of Governor Oleg Kuvshinnikov and Mayor Sergei Voropanov with drawings Nazi caps. In our opinion, persecution for displaying the swastika appropriate only in cases where it is a question of propaganda of Nazi ideology. In this same case, as in many similar ones, the swastika was used as a visual means of criticizing the authorities - as a symbol of the criminal regime.

Persecution of religious organizations and believers

Jehovah witnesses

In August, several cases of Jehovah's Witnesses.

In early August, the Pskov Regional the court of appeal commuted the sentence of 61-year-old Gennady Shpakovsky to conditional term. Earlier, in June, Shpakovsky was sentenced to six and a half years. imprisonment for hours. 1 Article. 282.2 of the Criminal Code (organization of the activities of an extremist organization) and part 1 of Art. 282.3 of the Criminal Code (financing of extremist activities) for continuing activities of the banned local community.

On the same day in Khabarovsk Industrial the district court decided to return to the prosecutor's office the case of Vitaliy Zhuk, Stanislav Kim and Nikolai Polevodov, who are charged under Part 1 of Art. 282.2 of the Criminal Code, and Tatyana Zhuk, Maya Karpushkina and Svetlana Sedova, accused under part 2 of the same article, to eliminate violations in the indictment. Earlier, in February, another court in Khabarovsk sentenced Kim and Polevodov to probation according to part 2 of Art. 282.2 of the Criminal Code.

Sverdlovsk Regional Court at the beginning August canceled the sentence of Alexander Pryanikov, Venera Dulova and Daria Dulova from Krasnoturinsk, their the case was returned for a new trial to the Karpinsky City Court. In January they were found guilty under Part 2 of Art. 282.2 of the Criminal Code. Pryanikov was sentenced to two and a half to years of imprisonment on probation, Venera Dulova to two years on probation, and her 19-year-old daughter Daria - one year probation.

But new cases were opened in regarding Jehovah's Witnesses in different regions of Russia.

The aforementioned Alexander Pryanikov, who, in his second case, has been accused by investigators since February of Part 1.1 of Art. 282.2 of the Criminal Code, added part 4 of Art. 150 of the Criminal Code (involvement of a minor in a criminal group) and part 1 of Art. 282.2 of the Criminal Code. His wife Anastasia, who was charged with Part 2 of Art. 282.2 of the Criminal Code, assigned the status of a suspect under Part 1.1 of Art. 282.2 of the Criminal Code. Suspects under Part 4 of Art. Svetlana and Ruslan Zalyaev also became 150 of the Criminal Code, against whom cases were initiated under CC in May. 1.1 and 2 Art. 282.2 of the Criminal Code.

In the Rostov region, defendants Part 1 Art. 282.2 of the Criminal Code became six believers: Nikita Moiseev, Alexey Gorely, Evgeny Razumov, Alexey Dyadkin, Oleg Shidlovsky and Vladimir Popov; they were all enclosed into custody.

In the middle of the month it became known that in Partizansk a criminal case was initiated under Part 2 of Art. 282.2 of the Criminal Code in relation to Leah Maltseva, a measure of restraint was chosen for her in the form of a written undertaking not to leave.

In Khanty-Mansi Autonomous Okrug - Ugra in the second half of August a criminal case was initiated under Part 1 of Art. 282.2 of the Criminal Code in relation to two residents of Yugorsk 42 and 48 years old, they took a written undertaking not to leave.

From our point vision, the decision to ban all organizations of Jehovah's Witnesses in Russia, issued by the Supreme Court of Russia in April 2017, had no legal basis and we regard it as a manifestation of religious discrimination. We also consider it unlawful to persecute parents for involving minors in criminal activity due to the fact that that they are raising their children in the same religious tradition that they adhere to themselves.

Scientologists

In mid-August Nevsky district the St. Petersburg court finally began to consider case of St. Petersburg Scientologists, initiated back in 2017. Members of the Scientology church to Ivan Matsitsky (leader of the local organization), Sahib Aliyev (accountant), Galina Shurinova (executive director), Anastasia Terentyeva (head on official matters) and Constance Esaulkova (lawyer) was charged according to part 3 of Art. 33 p. "c" and part 2 of Art. 282 of the Criminal Code; Part 3 Art. 33 and part 1 of Art. 282.1 of the Criminal Code; Part 2 Art. 282.1 UK; Part 3 Art. 33 and pp. "a", "b" part 2 of Art. 171 of the Criminal Code; Part 5 Art. 33 and pp. "a", "b" part 2 of Art. 171 of the Criminal Code; Part 3 Art. 33 and p. "b" part 4 of Art. 174.1 of the Criminal Code, that is, they are accused of organizing inciting hatred by an organized group, organizing the activities of an extremist community and participation in it, in the organization of illegal business organized a group with the extraction of income on an especially large scale and complicity in such and in the organization of money laundering on a particularly large scale. At the first court session indictment was announced. The defendants disagreed with the version of the investigation: they do not admit guilt and believe that they are being persecuted for their faith. We believe, that charges under anti-extremist Art. CC 282 and 282.1 brought against Scientologists illegal (we wrote more about this here ).

Muslims

At the beginning of the month it became known that in the Leningrad region, the criminal case of the alleged supporter was sent to the court Tablighi Jamaat movement banned in Russia. Citizen of Kyrgyzstan charged under Part 2 of Art. 282 of the Criminal Code. According to investigators, the defendant "took an active participated and held religious events ("dagwat" and "taalim") in a construction camp on the territory of the Kingisepp region".

Information appeared in mid-August that with respect to several alleged Tablighi Jamaat supporters criminal case under 1 and 2 Art. 282.2 of the Criminal Code was also initiated in Mordovia.

Religious movement "Tablighi" Jamaat" was banned in Russia in 2009, in our opinion, without proper reason. This association is engaged in the promotion of Islam fundamentalist, but was not seen in any calls for violence, and therefore the persecution of his supporters, from our point of view, is unjustified.

August 18, 2020 Krasnoglinsky district the court of Samara satisfied the claim of the prosecutor's office of the Samara region and partially recognized extremist Russian-language publications of two authoritative interpretations of the Koran (tafseers). Forbidden, with the exception of quotations from the Qur'an, the first volume of al-Saadi's tafsir and the second and third volumes of Ibn Kathir's exegesis. Lawyers representing the interests of publishers, intend to challenge the ban. In "The Interpretation of the Holy Qur'an" by al-Saadi indeed contains a number of interpretations that can be regarded as an endorsement modern military jihad. It should be borne in mind that this is quite popular interpretation of the Qur'an, and the negative effect of its prohibition may outweigh the effect from some of the statements it contains. As for the tafsir of Ibn Kathir, it can be found a ban on friendship with "unbelievers" and calls to fight with them, but do not forget that Ibn Kathir is not a modern author, but a scientist XIV centuries, the historical conditions for writing his text were very different from modern ones, and cannot correspond to modern ideas about tolerance.

Persecution for insulting feelings believers

In the middle of the month, it became known that the case of a 30-year-old resident was submitted to the court Kiselevsk, Kemerovo region, who is accused under Part 1 of Art. 148 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (public acts expressing clear disrespect for society and committed with the aim of insulting religious feelings of believers). According to the investigation, he published materials on the Internet, insulting Muslims, Islam and attributes of this religion. Carried out linguistic examination confirmed that the materials published by him contain "signs of clear disrespect for society and an insult to the religious feelings of Muslims." We we do not know what kind of publications the resident of Kiselevsk made. If they really contained insults against Muslims or incited hatred towards them, then the actions the accused should be qualified under Art. 20.3.1 of the Code of Administrative Offenses; otherwise its generally should not have been held accountable.

At the end of August, we learned about the initiation of a criminal case under Part 2 of Art. 148 of the Criminal Code (public actions expressing clear disrespect for society and committed in order to insult the religious feelings of believers, committed in places specially intended for worship). The suspect was an 18-year-old Chita. At the end of July 2020, with the help of a friend, he recorded a video for TikTok, on which enters the Cathedral of the Kazan Icon of the Mother of God and, crossing himself, lights from a church candle. After the video was released to the media, he apologized for her. Although the young man violated the accepted rules of conduct in the temple, his actions, judging by the video, did not cause damage to religious objects and did not attract in the church no one's attention, in contrast to the publication of the video - thus, part 2 article was applied in this case unreasonably.

We opposed the amendments, according to which Art. 148 of the Criminal Code was introduced insulting the feelings of believers, because we believe that this vague concept is not has and cannot have a clear legal meaning.