On January 30, 2007, a new jury was selected in the city court of St. Petersburg for a retrial of the criminal case on the murder of Congolese student Rolland Epossac. 71 candidates appeared for selection, of which 36 were eliminated, and 22 assessors were selected from the remaining ones: 12 main and 10 reserve. The prosecutor's office exercised its right to motivated and unmotivated challenges.

The prosecutor's office of the Yaroslavl region is investigating a criminal case under Art. 280 part 1 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation ("Public calls for the implementation of extremist activities"). The case was initiated against journalist Andrey Novikov, a regular contributor to the Chechenpress website. The prosecutor's office saw calls for extremist activity in e-mails sent by the journalist to Chechen-press and the editors of the Yaroslavl newspaper Golden Ring.

The head of the Council of Muftis of Russia, Ravil Gainutdin, during a meeting of representatives of regional public organizations in Moscow, commented on the situation with the teaching of "Fundamentals of Orthodox Culture" in various regions of Russia. According to the mufti, the teaching of this subject violates the Constitution of the country.

On January 29, in the court of the Leninsky district of Tyumen, the first hearing was held on the claim of the head of the administration of Tyumen, Sergei Smetanyuk, on the demolition of two mosques in the village. Matmasy - operating and under construction. The first mosque was built about six years ago without permits. Two years ago, a second mosque was built next to it. The Muslim community of the village is not registered, therefore it cannot register the mosque as an organization.

On January 29, 2007, the Moscow Regional Court began consideration of the merits of the case regarding the explosion of the Grozny-Moscow train. The hearing began with the judge reading out the case materials. Next, the prosecution began to present its arguments. The process, as before, takes place behind closed doors. The accused did not plead guilty. It is expected that at the next court hearings the prosecutor's office will announce the results of the examinations.

*We are publishing the Ruling of the Constitutional Court of the Russian Federation of January 25, 2007 on the complaint of Sergei Putintsev , who tried to challenge the constitutionality of the ban on displaying Nazi symbols in the Code of Administrative Offenses of the Russian Federation. The Constitutional Court of Russia refused to consider S. Putintsev's complaint, because considered that "the identification of the specific content of evaluative concepts [i.e.

On December 27, 2006, the movement "For Human Rights" received a second response from the Nagatinskaya Interdistrict Prosecutor's Office of the South Administrative District of Moscow to a statement about media reports about extremist activities of the "National Socialist Movement "Slavic Union" (SS).

On January 26, 2007, unknown persons committed the murder of a native of Central Asia in Moscow. The police received a report that a man’s body was lying near the garages located on Ussuriyskaya Street. Police and ambulances arrived at the scene of the incident. According to experts, the cause of death was more than 20 stab wounds. The deceased was wearing an orange work vest with reflective stripes. No documents were found on him.

The Department for External Church Relations of the Moscow Patriarchate denied the information that appeared in the media about the participation of an Orthodox priest in Catholic worship.

On January 27, 2007, an evening in memory of the victims of the Holocaust, organized by the Holocaust Foundation, was held at the Central House of Writers in Moscow. The event was attended by politicians, the military, lawyers, students and schoolchildren, veterans of the Great Patriotic War, etc. Newsreels were shown at the memorial evening, folk music was played, songs were sung, and poetry was read.

January 25, 2007 Oktyabrsky District Court of St. Petersburg dropped the criminal case against Pavel Mitrofanov, who was charged under Part 1 of Art. 282 (inciting hatred) for distributing xenophobic publications. By a court decision, the criminal case against him was dismissed in accordance with Part.2 Article. 443 of the Code of Criminal Procedure of the Russian Federation (i.e. it was recognized that P. Mitrofanov suffers from a mental disorder, but is not dangerous to society).