Translated material
Unlawful anti-extremism in March 2021
We are publishing a review of the main and most significant events in the field of unlawful application of anti-extremist legislation in Russia in March 2021.
Rulemaking
In early March, Vladimir Putin signeda law expanding the list of information subject to extrajudicial blocking on the Internet: election commissions are tasked with making decisions on the temporary blocking of illegal campaigning. Having received information from the election commissions about the availability of such information on the network, Roskomnadzor will have to immediately send a request to the provider to block the site (which must also be executed immediately). According to the law, blocking cannot begin before the day the elections are announced, but ends after five days from the day the results are determined. Considering that illegal campaigning is most likely to appear on social networks, and selective blocking of messages from social networks is technically impossible for the authorities, the existence of such a law increases during the election campaign the risk of complete blocking of certain social networks or other sanctions against them in accordance with those adopted at the end of the past rules regarding prohibited content on social networks.
On the same days, the State Duma adopted in the first readinga bill on extrajudicial blocking of information that “justifies” or “justifies” extremism and terrorism, developed by the Duma Commission to investigate the facts of interference of foreign states in the internal affairs of Russia and submitted to the State Duma in July 2020. Part 1 of Art. must undergo changes. 15.3 Federal Law "On Information". If such a law is adopted, information containing not only “calls for mass riots and extremist activities” (current version), but also “justification and (or) justification for extremist activities, including terrorist activities,” will be subject to extrajudicial blocking . In addition, a bill on extrajudicial blocking of “false information that discredits the honor and dignity of a person or undermines his reputation and is associated with accusing a person of committing a crime” was adopted in the first reading. Both norms will give the authorities additional tools to limit public debate and suppress critical speech.
In connection with the slowdown of Twitter, organized by Roskomnadzor in March, we learned that on February 12, 2020, the government adopted a resolution “On approval of the Rules for the centralized management of a public communications network.” Based on this document, the department was able to reduce the speed of access to photos and videos on the social network, and also announced its readiness to completely block it if its requirements were not met. The RKN can take such measures to any information on the basis of the law on the “sovereign Internet” if it is included in the list of security threats, and according to paragraph 5 of the Resolution, a threat to the security of the functioning of the Internet on the territory of Russia is understood, among other things, as a “violation of the ability of the network communications to resist <...> impacts associated with the dissemination of information on the Internet, access to which is subject to restrictions in accordance with the legislation of the Russian Federation." We doubt the legality of this method of dealing with non-compliance with Roskomnadzor’s requirements: slowing down traffic is actually a sanction for social networks; sanctions must be directly established in the law, and not in the by-laws.
At the end of March, the Federation Council approved a package of amendments to strengthen responsibility for the rehabilitation of Nazism, after the package was adopted by the State Duma in the second and third readings during March. On April 5, the amendments were signed by the president. The package of laws increases criminal liability for the rehabilitation of Nazism on the Internet, introduces penalties for “insulting the memory” of veterans and slandering them, and expands the administrative liability of legal entities. The amendments expand the potential use of the already poorly formulated Art. 354.1 of the Criminal Code on the rehabilitation of Nazism for an insufficiently justified restriction of freedom of speech, given that it introduces the concept of “humiliation of honor and dignity”, which allows for a broad interpretation, which is used in Art. 5.61 Code of Administrative Offenses (insult), and the unclear term “insult to memory”.
In March, the State Duma approved amendments to the federal law “On Education” in the second and third readings; the law was also approved by the Federation Council; the president signed it on April 5. The amendments provide for the introduction into the law of the concept of “educational activities,” which is defined as activities to disseminate various knowledge and experience carried out outside the framework of educational programs. According to the law, the procedure, conditions and forms of conducting such broadly defined “educational activities” should be determined by the government, and coordination of the participation of educational organizations in international cooperation should be carried out by federal government bodies, which disproportionately expands the powers of the authorities in the field of education and, in fact, any communications. In addition, the law, by analogy with restrictions on teaching activities, introduces a ban on the use of educational activities to incite hatred and promote superiority on various group grounds, “including through the communication of false information about the historical, national, religious and cultural traditions of peoples, as well as to induce actions contrary to the Constitution of the Russian Federation."
In March, they passed the second and third readings in the State Duma and amendments to the federal law “On Non-Profit Organizations” were approved by the Federation Council. On April 5, 2021, the law was signed by Vladimir Putin. The law provides that NPOs included in the register of “performing the functions of a foreign agent” must provide the Ministry of Justice with “declared for implementation” programs before they begin, and “implemented programs”, documents on the implementation of activities, reports on the implementation of programs and activities, or information on that the events were not held – annually. The same requirement is being introduced for divisions of foreign NPOs, but for them the deadline for submitting such reports will now be determined by the government, and the audit report will be determined by the Ministry of Justice itself. At the same time, the provision on the powers of the Ministry of Justice to ban the NPO program or part of it is extended to NPOs that are “foreign agents”; in case of implementation of a prohibited program, the NPO is subject to liquidation (until now, a similar procedure was in effect only for foreign NPOs). The list of grounds for conducting an unscheduled inspection of an NPO is supplemented by the case when official bodies receive information about the participation of this NPO in the activities of “undesirable organizations.” In addition, Russian legal entities whose beneficial owners are foreign citizens or stateless persons are included in the list of foreign sources of financing for non-profit “foreign agents”. We believe that the tightening of legislation on “foreign agents” indicates a progressive attack on freedom of speech and freedom of association in Russia.
In March, a law amending the federal law “On Freedom of Conscience and Religious Associations” was adopted in the second and third readings and approved by the Federation Council. Vladimir Putin signed it on April 5. Among other things, the law provides for the inclusion in the law of an indication that the leader and participant of a religious group cannot be a foreign citizen or a stateless person in respect of whom a decision has been made that it is undesirable to stay in the Russian Federation; a person included in the Rosfinmonitoring list of extremists and terrorists (remember, even suspects are included in the list); a person in respect of whom a court decision that has entered into legal force has established that his actions contain signs of extremist activity; an individual whose accounts have been frozen by the Interdepartmental Commission for Combating the Financing of Terrorism. Thus, the requirements already existing in the legislation for non-profit organizations, including religious ones, will be extended to the leaders and participants of religious groups. In our opinion, we are talking about an excessive restriction of the right to freedom of religion: even involvement in illegal activities should not deprive a person of the opportunity to be a member of a particular religious organization or group, because this right is guaranteed by the constitutional norm on the right to practice one’s religion “in common with others.” (v.28).
In the middle of the month, in accordance with the Strategy for Countering Extremism as amended in 2020, the government submitted to the State Duma draft amendments to the law “On Combating Extremist Activities”, providing for the creation of a “specialized information database of extremist materials.” The Ministry of Justice will add materials deemed extremist by the courts to this data bank, while continuing to supplement the already existing Federal List of Extremist Materials with information about such materials. As the Ministry of Justice previously stated, a unified data bank will simplify the identification of materials of an extremist nature that are discovered by government authorities with those that were previously prohibited.
Activities of the Constitutional Court
In March, the Constitutional Court of Russia (CC) published a ruling adopted on February 11 refusing to accept for consideration the request of the Supreme Court of Karelia to verify the constitutionality of Part 2 of Art. 22 of the Federal Law "On Citizenship of the Russian Federation". The request was related to the claim of Andrei Novikov, a native of the Ukrainian SSR, who moved to Kaliningrad back in 1987, and then to Petrozavodsk, and received Russian citizenship at the end of 2004. In 2017, he was convicted of preparing to participate in the activities of the terrorist organization "Islamic State" (Part 1 of Article 30, Part 2 of Article 205.5 of the Criminal Code). In 2019, he was released from prison, and in 2020, the Main Directorate of the Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs for Moscow canceled the decision to grant Novikov Russian citizenship. The Petrozavodsk City Court rejected his claim against the Ministry of Internal Affairs, but the Supreme Court of Karelia, when considering the appeal, granted the request to send the request to the Constitutional Court. The basis for canceling the decision to grant Novikov citizenship was a law adopted in 2017, according to which the commission of crimes under a number of articles of the Criminal Code, including articles on terrorism and participation in terrorist and extremist organizations, is equated to reporting knowingly false information about the obligation to comply with the Constitution and legislation Russia. The Constitutional Court indicated that the cancellation of the decision to grant a person Russian citizenship “is not deprivation of citizenship, but is a constitutionally permissible measure, despite the fact that the decision of the authorized body to cancel the decision on granting citizenship is not arbitrary in nature.” The argument that these amendments cannot have retroactive effect, that is, they should apply only to those who acquired citizenship after their adoption, was found untenable by the Constitutional Court. From his point of view, the cancellation of the decision on admission to citizenship on the above grounds “does not act as a measure of responsibility, but by its legal nature represents a constitutional restorative measure.” At the same time, extending the norm only to those who acquired citizenship after its adoption would put them in an unequal position with those who received citizenship earlier, the Constitutional Court believes. At the same time, the Constitutional Court pointed to its past rulings, which stated that the establishment of the fact of reporting knowingly false information is not an absolute basis for a decision to revoke citizenship and that when making such a decision, all specific circumstances must be taken into account.
A similar decision was made by the Constitutional Court on the complaint of Evgeniy Kim, who in April 2019, upon release from the colony where he was serving a sentence for involvement in the banned religious association "Nurcular" (we believe that he was wrongfully convicted), was deprived of Russian citizenship and sent to the Temporary Detention Center for Foreign Citizens (TSVSIG), where he is still staying, since he has no other citizenship, and, accordingly, there is nowhere to deport him. The Constitutional Court indicated that the very rules governing the detention of a stateless person in a TsVSIG do not violate his constitutional rights and freedoms; the court, however, insisted that such a measure is “optional”, and it is worth resorting to only if such restriction of liberty is “indeed necessary to ensure forced removal.” In addition, the Constitutional Court recalled that back in 2017 it recommended providing migration status for stateless persons in order to eliminate such risks. This requirement of the Constitutional Court was fulfilled in February 2021: according to the amendment introduced to the Federal Law “On the Legal Status of Foreign Citizens in the Russian Federation”, stateless persons will be able to obtain a temporary identity card valid for up to ten years, which will allow them to legally stay and work in the territory Russia. Despite the fact that the amendments will only come into force in August, the court insisted that they “cannot be ignored” by the courts now.
Prosecution for anti-government statements
At the beginning of the month, Marxist activist Alexey Popov from Kamensk-Shakhtinsky became a suspect under Part 2 of Art. 280 of the Criminal Code (public calls for extremist activities on the Internet). The reason for the persecution was Popov’s posts on VKontakte, in particular, an entry that said that in the event of an imperialist war one should “take up arms against one’s own liberal government” and then “transfer the flame of revolution to a country or bloc of countries at war with Russia ". According to Popov, the case materials mention that his publications contain signs of inciting hatred towards the social group of billionaires. From our point of view, Popov’s statement about the imperialist war does not give rise to his prosecution for calling for a violent overthrow of power, since we are talking about discussing a purely speculative and unlikely situation. As for billionaires, in our opinion, they do not form a vulnerable social group that needs protection from manifestations of hatred.
At the end of March in Naberezhnye Chelny, as part of a criminal investigation under Art. 282 of the Criminal Code (incitement to hatred), a search was conducted at the home of seventy-year-old activist of the Tatar national movement Fauziya Bayramova. As it turned out, the case was initiated back in June 2020. Bayramova believes that the searches and investigation are related to the speech of activists at the Day of Remembrance of the Defenders of Kazan during the capture of the city by the troops of Ivan the Terrible, which took place in Kazan on October 12, 2019. Bayramova then stated that the Tatars need to be explained that either they will get rid of colonial oppression and preserve their language, religion and statehood, or they will turn from “ Tatars, Muslims ” who go to heaven, into “ infidel Russians, Chinese ” who are destined to go to hell. We see in these words a warning against assimilation, but the experts brought in by the police considered that Bayramova’s statements contained signs of inciting hatred on national and religious grounds, so the activist was fined on June 4, 2020 under Art. 20.3.1 of the Administrative Code, similar in composition to Part 1 of Art. 282 of the Criminal Code and applied in case of the first violation within a year. And the very next day a criminal case was opened under Part 1 of Art. 282 of the Criminal Code. We don’t know what exactly Bayramova is accused of this time, but in general, in her speeches, the idea of “decolonization” of Tatarstan is heard over and over again, which is not accompanied by any aggressive calls; For this, the activist was repeatedly prosecuted on various charges. We believe that such statements should not be criminalized as incitement to hatred based on nationality or as calls for separatism: the criminalization of public debate and peaceful political struggle on issues of the status of regions leads to unacceptable restrictions on freedom of expression.
Several people were fined under Art. 20.3.1 Code of Administrative Offenses for inciting hatred towards the police. From our point of view, law enforcement officers and government officials should not be considered a vulnerable social group in need of special protection from manifestations of hatred; This position is consistently adhered to by the European Court of Human Rights.
In Krasnoyarsk according to Art. 20.3.1 of the Code of Administrative Offenses, local resident Vladimir Vladimirov was fined 17 thousand rubles, who posted on Instagram at the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic a photo of police officers holding a sign asking them to stay at home, accompanied by the caption “Shame on the police.” According to Vladimirov, he did not notice this signature and posted the photo “for patriotic reasons.”
In Chelyabinsk, local activist Oleg Shamburov was fined 15 thousand rubles under the same article. Shamburov rudely spoke about the actions of the police in the telegram chat of the local headquarters Alexei Navalny, as well as at the exit from the special receiver, where he was serving administrative arrest for participating in an inconsistent public event.
The decision of the court that fined 10 thousand local resident Andrei Dekhtyaruk in December entered into force; This decision in February was approved by the Trans -Baikal Regional Court. The dechnyakuk on his YouTube channel using obscene vocabulary appreciated the actions of the police and the leadership of the Ministry of Internal Affairs in Yakutia after the detention of video blogger Sergei Tikho in Yakutsk. At the same time, Dechtyakuk emphasized that the police will have to answer by the law for illegal actions.
In March, we became aware of several fined under Art. 20.29 Code of Administrative Offenses (mass distribution of extremist materials) for the reposts of the video of the supporters of Alexei Navalny "Let us remember the crooks and thieves of their manifesto-2002", which was recognized as extremist in 2013. The content of the video “Remember the crooks and thieves of their manifesto-2002”, for which they are often pursued by opposition users of social networks, is reduced to listing a number of unrealized pre-election promises of United Russia from the 2002 party and I will call to vote for any party, except for the ruling. We consider the prohibition of this video is unfounded, and the persecution for its distribution is unlawful. In Tobolsk, the Tyumen region was fined a thousand rubles as a deputy of the Tyumen Regional Duma from the Communist Party Yuri Yukhnevich, who repeatedly opposed persecution for political reasons and for the return of municipal elections of the heads of local authorities. Recall that persons punished under Art. 20.29 Code of Administrative Offenses, are deprived of passive suffrage for a year from the date of completion of the execution of the court decision. In Ryazan, a 24-year-old local resident was fined. In the Republic of Mari El, a resident of the village of Orshanka Galina Poptsova was fined a thousand rubles, and in Yoshkar-Ola Andrei Savelyev and Konstantin Pakhmutov; In relation to another resident of Yoshkar-Ola, Olesya Volkova, the case was closed, since at the time the prosecutor was made by the decision to initiate the video on the Volkova page no longer.
Pursuit for group anti -government activities
In Izhevsk, in early March, a criminal case was opened under paragraph "b" of part 1 of Art. 213 of the Criminal Code (hooliganism, based on political, ideological, racial, national or religious hatred or enmity or based on hatred or enmity in relation to any social group); The activist of the Russian socialist movement (RSD) Anastasia Ponykina became his defendant. According to investigators, on January 23, 2021, Ponykina brought citizens gathered in the central square in Izhevsk to the roadway of Pushkinskaya Street, after which a massive event of at least two thousand people began. In itself, the conclusion of people to the roadway, from our point of view, cannot be qualified as hooliganism if it has not entailed a violation of working conditions and rest of citizens, the work of institutions, etc., i.e. He did not lead to a gross violation of public order expressing disrespect for society. Previously, similar accusations were brought by Chelyabinsk activists Oksana Eremina and Yuri Voyurin, but the court acquitted them.
In Chelyabinsk, a criminal case was opened against the former member of the local branch of the Party "Another Russia" by Ivan Alekseev under Part 2 of Art. 282.2 of the Criminal Code (participation in the activities of an extremist organization), he is accused of continuing the activities of the prohibited National Bolshevik Party (NBP), but the essence of the charges is still unknown. Earlier, in August-September 2020 under the same part 2 of Art. 282.2 Three activists of another Russia were sentenced to various conditional terms. We consider the ban on the NBP and the persecution of activists for participating in it by unlawful (our argument can be foundhere ). The attack on the monument to the Czechoslovak legionnaires in Chelyabinsk and the plan of the prosecutor's office of the prosecutor's office in protest against the beating and rape of the detainee in the district police department, which were accused of the other Russians, they could be charged on the basis of other articles of the Criminal Code.
In addition, in March two cases were initiated under Art. 282.2 of the Criminal Code on charges of continuing AUE. Recall, in our opinion, the ban on the criminal subculture of AUE as a certain structured extremist organization was not sufficiently justified (for more details, see here ).
The GSU SK in Moscow opened a criminal case under Part 1 of Art. 282.2 of the Criminal Code on the organization in the Moscow pre-trial detention center "Bear" "cells" AUE. According to the investigation, it was organized by "persons with criminal authority" in order to propagate the activities of this organization on the territory of the insulator.
In the Republic of Adygea, a criminal case under Part 2 of Art. 282.2 of the Criminal Code was excited against a resident of the region who placed images with Symbols of AUE on social networks, "during communication with the residents of the region, he spoke in support of the movement and demonstrated his commitment to it", and also "denied generally accepted moral principles and the dominant role of law, promoted The ideology of violence as a way to achieve a goal and enmity in relation to representatives of the authorities. "
Sanctions for demonstrating prohibited symbols
In March, three people, in our opinion, were illegally held accountable under Part 1 of Art. 20.3 Administrative Code on the demonstration of prohibited symbols. Recall that we consider the persecution of this article justified only when symbolism spreads with the aim of promoting socially dangerous ideology.
In Vologda, the City Court fined Yegor Kovrigin for a thousand rubles, who published in 2017 on his VKontakte page with an advertisement for the computer-shooting of Wolfenstein, whose hero fights with the Nazi regime; The poster contained the image of the swastika.
In Kursk, the court arrested for five days an 18-year-old local resident, in respect of whom three protocols were drawn up under Part 1 of Art. 20.3 Code of Administrative Offences. The reason, as the lawyer who represented him, was the publication on the social network of “Audio recordings with the mention of AUE and the video in which the mouse Jerry with a sickle and hammer wins the sound of the anthem of the USSR Kota Tom, which shows a red flag with a swastika.” The video with Tom and Jerry is humorous and does not promote Nazism. As for the audio recordings with the mention of AUE, they themselves could not contain any symbols, they probably were published accompanied by some images.
In relation to a resident of Vyazma Irina Kiriyenkova, a protocol was drawn up under Part 1 of Art. 20.3 Code of Administrative Offenses due to two posts on VKontakte: in the first of them, she expressed indignation due to the fact that in the memorial complex "Memory Road" on the territory of the Church of the Ministry of Defense, a cap and tunic of Hitler were exhibited, and took the post with photographs of these objects; In the second post, Kiriyenkova compared Yunarmia and Hitler Youth and reasoned about the similarity of the emblem of the Unarome and the SS troops.
It should be noted that in March it became known that the lawyer and activist from Kaltan Dmitry Miropoltsev through the court achieved compensation for non -pecuniary damage for unreasonable administrative prosecution under part 1 of Art. 20.3 Code of Administrative Offences. In the lawsuit of the Miropoltsev, the amount of 20 thousand was announced, but the court recovered five thousand rubles from the Ministry of Internal Affairs. Recall that the police drew up a protocol to find on the Miropoltsev page on VKontakte a screenshot from the plot of the federal channel about a flash mob, dedicated to the 55th anniversary of the first flight of a person into space, which was held in Penza in 2016. Participants in the flash mob, representatives of the regional branch of the Russian Student detachments organized by the authorities, were lined up among "55", the view of which resembled a swastika from above. However, in November 2019, the Kaltan District Court of the Kemerovo Region terminated the proceedings for the absence of the composition of the offense, indicating that "from the presented graphic file, the guilty of the D.D. Miropoltsev, it follows that two digits 5 are depicted (signs for recording for recording specific values of the number). " Miropoltsev himself connected attempts to hold him accountable with his activities to combat corruption in the region and contest a local election law.
Persecution of religious organizations and believers
"Hizb ut-Tahrir"
In early March, the Central District Military Court in Samara sentenced to the case of Radik Khairutdinov and Elmar Mamedov, accused of involvement in the prohibited Radical Islamic Party "Hizb Ut-Tahrir". Mammadov was sentenced to 12 years in prison in a maximum security colony for participating in the activities of a terrorist organization (part 2 of article 205.5 of the Criminal Code) and public calls for terrorist activities committed on the Internet (part 2 of article 205.2 of the Criminal Code), Khairutdinov - to 11 years in a maximum security colony under Part 2 of Art. 205.5 Criminal Code. We are not aware of the content of materials that Mamedov distributed on the Internet. However, in general, we consider it unlawful to persecute the supporters of the Hizb Ut-Tahrir on “terrorist” articles of the Criminal Code only on the basis of party activity (holding meetings, reading literature, etc.). The Hizb Ut-Tahrir party is prohibited in Russia as a terrorist organization, although there is no information about its involvement in terrorism.
Jehovah witnesses
Last month, the persecution of Jehovah's witnesses actively continued. Recall that the management center of Jehovah's Witnesses in Russia and another 395 of their local religious organizations were prohibited in 2017 as extremist on charges of disseminating prohibited materials from Jehovah's Witnesses. We believe that both for the prohibition of materials and organizations of witnesses and for the persecution of believers for continuing the activities of their prohibited communities there were no grounds and we regard these actions of the authorities as religious discrimination and violation of the constitutional right to freedom of religion.
In March, five convictions were issued against five followers of the teachings of Jehovah's Witnesses.
The Prioksky District Court of Nizhny Novgorod found Sergei Verkhoturov guilty under Part 1 of Art. 282.2 of the Criminal Code (organization of the activities of an extremist organization) and sentenced him to six years in prison with a probation period of four years.
The Metallurgical District Court of Chelyabinsk sentenced the 73-year-old Valentin Suvorov to two years in prison with a probation with a probation per year and restriction of freedom for six months under Part 2 of Art. 282.2 of the Criminal Code.
The Nadezhda District Court of the Primorsky Territory sentenced 77-year-old Vladimir Filippov under part 1 of Art. 282.2 by six years in prison with a trial period of four years, restriction of freedom for one year and a ban on participating in public organizations for 3 years.
The Gagarinsky District Court of Sevastopol sentenced Viktor Stashevsky under Part 1 of Art. 282.2 By six and a half years in prison in a general regime colony with a seven -year ban on educational activities and activities related to speeches and publications in the media and the placement of materials on the Internet.
The Abinsky District Court of the Krasnodar Territory found Oleg Danilov from the village of Kholmskaya, guilty under Part 2 of Art. 282.2 and sentenced him to three years in prison.
In March, we learned about five new criminal cases against Jehovah's Witnesses.
In Syktyvkar, suspects in ChF. 1 and 2 tbsp. 282.2 are five believers. Alexander Kruglyakov was sent to the pre -trial detention center, Andrei Kharlamov and Alexander Ketov - under house arrest, and Sergei Ushakhin was taken from Lydia Nekrasova and Sergey.
Criminal case under Art. 282.2 was excited in the Amur Region, twelve people were interrogated.
In Lesozavodsk, Primorsky Territory against Sergei Kobelev and 65-year-old Galina Kobeleva, a criminal case was instituted under Part 2 of Art. 282.2 and part 1.1 of the same article (involvement in the activities of an extremist organization), a subscription about the lower right to leave was taken from them.
After a series of searches, four people were detained in Yalta, and one of the believers, Taras Kuzo was sent under house arrest as the accused under Part 1 of Art. 282.3 (financing of an extremist organization).
In Sochi, a criminal case was opened against four believers under part 1.1 of Art. 282.2. Vladimir Deshko and Tatyana Velizhanin were sent to the pre -trial detention center, Yuri Loginsky and Yuri Moskalev were placed under house arrest.
In addition, in March, followers of the teachings of Jehovah's Witnesses from Seversk, Tomsk Region Sergey Belousov, Andrei Kolesnichenko, Alexei Ershov and Andrey Ledyykin received the status of suspects in the activities of an extremist organization in the case of Yevgeny Korotun, which was initiated in the summer of 2020.
Several more believers who are under investigation under Art. 282.2 in different regions of Russia, in March, an accusation under Art. 282.3 of the Criminal Code on financing extremist activities.
On the last day of the month, the Oktyabrsky District Court of St. Petersburg recognized the JW Library mobile application for banned in Russia. The reason was that the application contains the materials of Jehovah's witnesses recognized by extremist, including the Bible translated by the new world. It is reported that the court decision will be sent to Roskomnadzor, after which the application will be blocked. Obviously, the application was recognized as prohibited for distribution in the order of ch. 27.1 CAS, in accordance with the procedure that is designed to block specific materials recognized as extremist earlier, and, in theory, should not apply to entire online libraries containing not only prohibited materials.
Persecution for anti-religious statements
In Chita in early March, the magistrate court appointed 120 hours of compulsory work under Part 2 of Art. 148 of the Criminal Code (public actions expressing a clear disrespect for society and committed in order to insult the religious feelings of believers committed in places specially intended for worship) 18-year-old local blogger. At the end of July 2020, the young man made a video for Tiktok, which shows how he enters the Cathedral of the Kazan Icon of the Mother of God and, crossing, lights from the church candle. After the video hit the media, the blogger apologized for him three times, said that he had received threats to his address, and added that he did not know about possible criminal liability. Chitinets violated the rules of behavior in the temple, however, judging by the video, there were no other visitors next to him, and his actions did not attract anyone's attention, did not cause damage to the objects of the cult and, in general, did not pose a significant danger to society, so we believe that in Criminal prosecution in this case was not necessary.