On May 19, 2005, the Kremlin.Org portal published an article by Moscow City Duma deputy Mikhail Moskvin-Tarkhanov "The Moscow City Duma in 2006 will approve any federal appointee." The Moscow Duma, writes M. Moskvin-Tarkhanov, from the very beginning of its inception was formed as a democratic body, which was able to become outside of politics and focus on urban problems.

In April 2005, Yuri Levada's Analytical Center commissioned the Public Verdict Foundation to conduct a survey on the attitude of Russians towards law enforcement agencies. According to the data obtained during the study, 54% of respondents believe that the authorities often use law enforcement agencies as a tool to fight political opponents. 20.3% indicated that this practice is used, but rarely.

On May 20, Abdurrauf Zabirov, Deputy Mufti of the Spiritual Muslim Spiritual Board of the European part of Russia, a member of the International Union of Journalists, at a meeting with the Chief Federal Inspector for the Penza Region Vladimir Fomin, expressed concern about the interference of the Penza authorities and law enforcement agencies in the election of the head of the regional Spiritual Spiritual Muslim Board (EDUM PO).

According to Vladimir Ivanov, head of the Syktyvkar Department of Internal Affairs, several dozen skinheads are registered with the Syktyvkar police. As V. Ivanov notes, groups usually gather near the opera and ballet theater, near schools No. 12 and 35, and, as a rule, behave peacefully, without violating public order. The statement of the head of the Department of Internal Affairs was made in connection with the mass action carried out by the radical nationalists of Syktyvkar on March 5, 2005.

On May 22, the Public Committee for Human Rights (as usual, represented by T.A. Kvitkovskaya) applied to the FSB Department for Moscow and the Moscow Region with a request "to take control of the activities of all religious and political associations of noospherites." According to T.A. Kvitkovskaya, "the fact that many of the apologists of noospherism (in particular, A.I. Subetto and V.N.

On May 23, 2005, Novye Izvestiya published an article by Mikhail Fedotov, "An Eye for an Eye", on the situation with freedom of speech in Russia.

We present judicial statistics under Article 282 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation for 1997-2004, prepared at the Research Institute of the Prosecutor General's Office. | Year of Convicts in the main. article Convicted under additional. qualifications Total | 282 hours 1 . 282 hours 2 .

Review by G. Kozhevnikova . We publish statistical data of the Research Institute of the Prosecutor General's Office for the investigation of criminal cases under Article 282 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (inciting national, racial and religious hatred and enmity). We draw readers' attention to the following: Firstly, these are preliminary statistics, and clarifications are possible. Secondly, these are not judicial, but investigative statistics - i.e.

Review by G. Kozhevnikova We present statistics on violent crimes with "nationalist" motivation for 2001-2004. according to information provided to us by the Research Institute of the Prosecutor General's Office. This is Art. 105, part 2, paragraph "l" of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (murder committed on the basis of national, racial, religious hatred or enmity or blood feud) and Art.

On May 22, a rally organized by the Moscow Central Church of Evangelical Pentecostal Christians "Emmanuel" took place in Moscow. The Pentecostals protested against the refusal of the city authorities to allocate them two plots of land for the construction of prayer houses (in Solntsevo and on Vernadsky Avenue). Believers regarded this as a violation of their rights.

On May 20-21, 2005 Kazan hosted an interregional conference "Ways of dialogue between law enforcement agencies and human rights organizations in countering manifestations of racism, xenophobia and other types of national and religious intolerance". The event was organized by the Moscow Bureau for Human Rights (MBHR) together with the Human Rights Center of Kazan.

On May 20, 2005, Denis Gerasimov, the 28-year-old leader of the Russian rock band Kolovrat, was released in Prague after 15 months of detention. Gerasimov was arrested in the capital of the Czech Republic, where he was touring with concerts, in January 2004.