Review of Moscow bureau for human rights

Attacks 

During the period from January till December 15, 2009 215 attacks were committed and 74 dead and 282 wounded at least were their results. 

During similar period of 2008 120 people at least perished from the hands of militant national-radicals and 368 people at least were wounded, and in 2007 69 people at least perished and 312 at least were wounded. 

The attacks were recorded in Moscow and Moscow region (33 dead, 131 wounded), St. Petersburg and Leningrad region (8 dead, 26 wounded), Chechnya (5 dead), Nizhniy Novgorod (5 dead, 44 wounded at least), Krasnodar region (3 dead, 3 wounded), Stavropol region (2 dead, 13 wounded at least), Samara region (2 dead, 7 wounded), Yaroslavl (2 dead, 2 wounded), Kaliningrad (1 dead, 2 wounded), Vladivostok (1 dead, 6 wounded), Blagoveshchensk (1 dead, 6 wounded), Chelyabinsk region, Ulyanovsk, Orel (1 dead, 1 wounded), Ingushetia, Lipetsk region, Ryazan, Novosibirsk region, Kemerovo, Kaluga region, Daghestan, Buryatia, Karachai-Cherkess (1 dead each), Vladimir region (7 wounded), Yekaterinburg (5 wounded), Naberezhniye Chelny (4 wounded), Murmansk (3 wounded), Kabardino-Balkaria, Republic of Adygei, Saratov (2 wounded at least), Voronezh, Tambov, Syktyvkar, Volgograd, Kostroma, Novgorod region, Izhevsk, Petrozavodsk, Penza, Ufa, Kirov region, Kursk (1 wounded each). 

The victims of attacks include: Uzbeks (14 dead, 12 wounded), the Kirghiz (8 dead, 10 wounded), the Tajik (7 dead, 18 wounded), Russians (7 dead, 13 wounded), Azerbaijanis (5 dead, 15 wounded), Armenians (3 dead, 15 wounded), Daghestanis (3 dead, 4 wounded), the Vietnamese (3 dead), the Chinese (2 dead, 8 wounded), natives of Africa (1 dead, 19 wounded), Koreans (1 dead, 3 wounded), Chechens (1 dead, 4 wounded at least), Kabardinians (1 dead and 1 wounded), Georgians (1 dead, 2 wounded), the Ingush (1 dead, 1 wounded), Jews (6 wounded), Kazakhs (5 wounded), Nogays (4 wounded), Turkmens (3 wounded), Spaniards (3 wounded), Americans, Indians, Kalmyks, Bangladeshis, Buryats, Kurds, Latin Americans, Iraqis, Ossetians, the Swiss (1 wounded each). 

During first half of December 4 attacks were recorded and 2 dead and 6 wounded were their results. Geography of attacks – Moscow and Moscow region (1 dead and 6 wounded) and Chelyabinsk region (1 dead). The objects of attacks include – the Tajik (1 dead), Turkmens (3 wounded), Jews (2 wounded), the Ingush (1 wounded).

On December 3 a 22-year–old native of Tajikistan was killed in Moscow.

On November 20 a vagabond was beaten by skinheads in Kopeisk (Chelyabinsk region); he died on December 3.

On December 3 unknown people had beaten two citizens of Israel near the building of Jewish youth religious community Esh a-Torah in the center of Moscow.

Mass slaughter between Turkmens and the Ingush took place on the evening of December 12 in student hostel of Russian state university of tourism and service located in Cherkizovo settlement near Moscow (Pushkino district). As a result four people were wounded – one Ingush and three Turkmens.

DPNI hurried to present the murder of the head of administration of Tuchkovo settlement Vitaly Ustimenko and his wife committed on December 13 as that committed by “representatives of Chechen organized criminal group” due to allegedly principal position of the official “concerning illegal immigration and domination of ethnic crime in Moscow region”. 
 

Vandalism 

During the period from January till December 15, 2009 141 case of vandalism at least was recorded.

During first half of December 3 cases of vandalism were recorded. 

On December 2 in Troitsk the employees of two shops “Expert” and “Eldorado” were shocked by anti-Semitic inscriptions and swastika that appeared on the advertisement banners and entrance group of these trade enterprises.

On December 6, 2009 an explosion took place in Vladimir in the temple of St. Cyril and Methodius adjacent to building 2 of Vladimir state university; it caused damage for the building and church property. During the inspection of the place of incident a leaflet was found near the temple written on behalf of the group “White storm”.

On December 10 in Krasnodar an inscription appeared on the building of one of magistrate’s courts: “Clause 282 of Criminal Code of RF prohibits being Russian”. 
 

Dissemination of xenophobic views 

On November 20-23 Levada-center conducted the next sociological interrogation (the results were made public on December 7). While the number of “firm” adherents of slogan “Russia for the Russians” remained approximately within the same limits as before (18%, during the time of conduction of sociological interrogations since 1998 this figure fluctuated from 14 to 21%) (high share of xenophobes-Muscovites can be marked out – 27%), the number of persons thinking that it would be not bad to implement this idea but within reasonable limits decreased from 41-42% recorded in 2007-2008 to 36%. At the same time the number of interrogated increased from 25 to 32% thinking that the idea “Russia for the Russians” is a real fascism. According to the data of interrogation conducted by Russian academy of public service on the order of the Ministry of regional development the results of which were made public on December 7, the question “are you interested in the subject of interethnic relations” was responded by 27% of interrogated as “yes” and by about 30% - “as “rather interested”. 
 

Public actions of nationalists 

On December 5 the fans of Moscow mini-football club “Dynamo-2” that came to Yugorsk to the match of ninth round of Super-league of championship of Russia versus local club “TGT-Yurga”, were shouting racist insults addressed to black-skinned players of the rival during the whole meeting.

On December 6 a no-rules fight championship arranged by nationalistic movement “Resistance” took place in sports center of North-Western directorate of Ministry of emergencies. During the championship the movement leader R. Zentsov declared the creation of “Fund of assistance to right prisoners”. When a scandal in this concern began in mass media, the report about the tournament was eliminated from portal zaks.ru where it was initially placed. 

In Syktyvkar representatives of national-patriotic organizations “Border of the North” and “Slavic union” held a picket during which the leaflets in defense of Komi and Russian nationalists were distributed and also the collection of signatures for conduction of referendum concerning construction of a mosque in Komi capital took place. The most radical statements at the picket were made by Syktyvkar resident Alexander Shchanov. He accused the authorities of Russia and leaders of federal and republican mass media of pursuing anti-popular policy pleasing to the world Jewish backstage. 
 

Xenophobic publications in mass media 

In the article by A. Lavrov in “Komsomolskaya Pravda” published on December 7 and devoted to interrogations of migrants with the purpose of identifying the image of a Muscovite the assertions were repeated that these are the labor migrants who commit 50% of frauds, 70% of rapes and 30% of murders in Moscow. On the same day an article by N. Mayorov appeared in “Komsomolskaya Pravda” where representatives of antifa movement were accused of robbery of the shop “4 Oranges” belonging to “Spartacus” team fans, of committing of numerous arsons etc. 
 

Migrants and migrant-phobia 

According to the data of Levada-center interrogation conducted on November 20-23, 2009 the results of which were made public on December 7, attitude of Russians towards the fact that workers from the near abroad work more and more often at construction sites can be called neutral-friendly. Though the number of those who estimate this stay unequivocally positively is just 19% (this figure was lower – 18% - only in October 2008 during 12 years of interrogations), 44% treat the stay of builders-immigrants in Russia neutrally (in October 2008 this figure reached the highest index during 12 years of interrogations – 49%). 61% of the interrogated stood for restriction of newcomers’ inflow (this figure was the highest during seven years of interrogations) while the number of people thinking that no administrative barriers should be put against newcomers’ inflow decreased and is 30% (the highest index – 44% - was recorded in 2002). Such differentiation is a consequence of migrant-phobic propaganda to a great extent, of articles in mass media and statements of officials about allegedly many-millioned hordes of migrants “flooding” Russia and taking away the workplaces from its residents. 

According to interrogation conducted in May 2009 in St. Petersburg by the sociologist M. Belousova with participation of St. Petersburg humanitarian-technological corporation the results of which were made public early in December 2009, 22,1% of St. Petersburg residents consider the restriction of rights of illegal migrants inadmissible and 8,1% consider restriction of rights of foreigners staying on the territory of Russia legally admissible too. 

Early in December it became known about dissemination of leaflets by members of movement “Locals” with inscription “Region 80. Ethnic program of movement “Locals”. No entry to Moscow region for illegals. When discovering illegal immigrants please contact the movement “Locals”. 
 

Xenophobia in religious sphere 

Late in November in Novorossiysk local directorate on protection of historical-cultural values dissolved a treaty on gratuitous use of a Lutheran church with local Lutheran community and demanded to clear the building from Lutherans till December 21. However when a scandal concerning this started in mass media early in December, the decision was cancelled.

On December 8 the judicial board on civil cases of the Supreme court of RF rejected a complaint of religious organization “Jehovah’s Witnesses” – Taganrog about the decision on its liquidation due to acknowledging their literature extremist. 
 

Xenophobia in educational system 

It became known on December 9 that in one of Tula schools all the Gypsy children were annually acknowledged needy of compensatory teaching receiving a mysterious “diagnosis”: “social deprivation, bilingualism”. At the same time when the pupils’ parents made a complaint about discrimination of children and breach of their rights for education to the court, it rejected these complaints without examination. 
 

Response of authorities to xenophobia 

Speaking at the Forum of European and Asian media on December 9, the President of RF D. Medvedev stated: “I think that xenophobic moods unfortunately strengthened during recent years. The problem is that these moods strengthen, and not only in Russia – in many other states too. But we are not responsible for other states, let them sort it out themselves, let Europe sort it out itself, there is a lot of xenophobia there too. We must be responsible for ourselves. We have this problem – and we must be busy with it.

As for both officials and not officials, direct juridical liability should exist for this – and for those who profess such views too … By the way, there are almost no such people on the level of our officials: during recent time I met practically no statements of persons invested with power on this subject – the statements being the subject of delinquency. But for the others, common citizens, this should not be a kind of an island either where the legislation is applied selectively: applied to officials and not to common citizens or visa versa – everybody should be liable for this.

Speaking about liability, it should be different: starting from common “brainwashing” in case it is still efficient and finishing with strict measures of criminal liability”. 
 

Public response to xenophobia 

On December 2 the regional workshop of teachers of history took place in municipal general educational institution secondary school No 15 of Yegoryevsk town, Moscow region, on the subject “Lessons of the Holocaust – road to tolerance”.

The Center “Holocaust”, Committee of education of Yegoryevsk municipal district administration and Moscow state humanitarian university named after M.A. Sholokhov became the co-organizers of the workshop that took place with support of the grant of the President of RF.

During opening of the workshop the participants were greeted by director of school T.A. Kofman, deputy head of administration of Yegoryevsk municipal district on social affairs T.I. Nikolayeva and co-chairman of the Center “Holocaust” I.A. Altman who noted that this inter-district workshop is the first one held by the Center “Holocaust” outside the capital or regional cities.

On December 5 the anti-fascist meeting took place in Moscow arranged by public movement “Elder generation” and timed to 68th anniversary of counterattack of Soviet troops near Moscow. “We came here on this day for attracting the public attention again to the tendency of dissemination of fascism in Russia”, one of leaders of the movement Zinaida Rayeva told ITAR-TASS. More than 400 people took part in the meeting. 
 

Law-enforcement practice 

During the period from January till December 15, 2009 301 persons were convicted for crimes motivated by aggressive xenophobia. 2 persons were sentenced to 20-25-year imprisonment, 22 – to 10-20-year imprisonment, 51 – to 5-10-year imprisonment, 61 – to 1-5-year imprisonment, 9 – to imprisonment in colony-settlement, 28 – to correctional and public work, for 4 persons educational effect measures were set, 1 person was sentenced to two-days arrest, 73 – got suspended sentences, 36 – were sentenced to penalties, 3 – were sent for compulsory treatment, 3 – were released from liability due to expiration of statute of limitation and against one person the case was terminated due to his repentance. 4 else of the accused were found not guilty completely. In 2007 85 persons were convicted during similar period, and in 2008 – 195 persons. 

During the period of December 1-14 9 persons were convicted for crimes motivated by xenophobia. Four persons were sentenced to 1-5-year imprisonment, two – to penalties, two – to 10-20-year imprisonment and one – to imprisonment in colony-settlement. 

On December 7 Vyborgsky district court of St. Petersburg found two Sidorov brothers who had beaten two Daghestanis on January 12 guilty of hooliganism motivated by ethnic hatred and hostility. They were sentenced to imprisonment for the term of 3 years and 3 months with serving the punishment in strict regime correctional colony.

On December 8 the magistrate’s court in Rubtsovsky district of Altay region called the citizen of Kirghizia to administrative account for mass dissemination and storage of Islamic character extremist materials. Taking into consideration that the accused pleaded himself guilty and the fact of his repentance, the court made a decision about his punishment as penalty in amount of 1,5 thousand rubles.

On December 8 Pervomaisky district court of Omsk complied with an application of Omsk public prosecutor and made a decision on acknowledging two books by Valery Dyomin “From Aryans to Rus” and “From Rus to Russians” extremist.

On December 8 it became known that Kaluga resident S. Gorinov was fined in amount of 1000 rubles for placement of the film “The Wandering Jew” included into the Federal list of extremist materials on the Internet.

On December 9 the office of public prosecutor of Astrakhan region made a warning to website “Astrakhan news” where the comments to one of the articles contained expressions of nationalistic character coming within the notion of extremism.

Krasnodar regional court sentenced two residents of Maikop who killed three homosexuals in January 2009 to 15- and 10-year imprisonment but one of them escaped from custody on December 9.

On December 12 in Cheboksary the sentence was passed on local students Alexey Maslennikov and Mikhail Oreshnikov accused of attempted arson of district militia point “motivated by political and ethnic hatred” on May 5, 2009. Both were sentenced to 1,5-year imprisonment in general regime colony.

On December 11 Chistopol city court sentenced 20-year-old student of local agricultural technical secondary school Ilgiz Gizyatullin to 4-month imprisonment in colony-settlement for dissemination of literature of “Hizb ut-Tahrir” organization.

On December 14 the decision of Pervomaisky district court of Kirov came into force about complying with application of Oktyabrsky district public prosecutor of Kirov about acknowledgement of the brochure “Russian Orthodox church and modern pre-Antichrist epoch. Religious concept of Russian Orthodox church” extremist. The brochure “Russian Orthodox church and modern pre-Antichrist epoch. Religious concept of Russian Orthodox church” contains the statements aimed at propaganda of superiority of Orthodox monarchy over other forms of state power, propaganda of inferiority of other religions, hidden appeals to actions directed at incitement of ethnic dissension.

On December 14 the case concerning attack on the camp of ecologists near Angarsk in 2007 was sent again for improvement to the office of public prosecutor.

On December 14 Moscow city court acknowledged the sentence imposed on the participants of extremist group “Black hawks” legitimate.

On December 2 in Velikiy Novgorod the trial started over 36-year-old V. Timoshenko accused of preparation of terrorist act with the purpose of acquiring the status of a “fighter for interests of the Russians in Russia”.

On December 9 it became known about the suit of Khanty-Mansi inter-district office of public prosecutor against the branch of electric communication SC “Uralsvyazinform” concerning putting the obligation of restricting the access of schoolchildren to websites of extremist and terrorist orientation. The public prosecutor also made submissions to the heads of educational institutions concerning elimination of breaches of federal legislation.

The head of Roscomnadzor S. Sitnikov informed in his interview to “Rossiyskaya gazeta” published on December 10 that his department is at law with newspaper “To the barrier!” – legal successor of newspaper “Duel”.

On December 1 it became known that office of public prosecutor of Tyumen region sent the criminal case against 33-year-old resident of Tyumen Vladimir Kopeikin to the court. He is accused of placing of an article on one of Internet forums containing public appeals to extremist activity, to arsons of buildings of law-enforcement bodies and state institutions, murders etc (it probably deals with the notorious appeal to the “Day of revenge”).

On December 4 the criminal case against 46-year-old resident of ZATO of Snezhinsk town Alexander Safronov was sent to court. He is accused of committing the actions aimed at incitement of hatred or hostility as well as at humiliation of human dignity basing upon race, nationality, origin, attitude towards religion.

On December 4 the office of public prosecutor of Kamchatka region, basing upon the materials provided by Center for counteraction to extremism of Directorate of home affairs (UVD) for Kamchatka region, directed the applications to Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky city court about acknowledgement of materials of several printed editions including the book by B. Mironov “A verdict killing Russia” extremist.

On December 7 the public prosecutor of Leninsky district of Kirov sent a submission to the court about acknowledgement of the brochure by A.A. Dobrovolsky “The Magi” an extremist material.

On December 8 the office of public prosecutor of Ordjonikidzevsky district of Ufa sent the indictment against three young people at the age of 18, 17 and 15 to the court; they are accused of committing an attack on the citizen of Republic of Chad being the student of Ufa state oil technical university.

On December 12 the public prosecutor of Kostroma city approved the indictment on the criminal case against 32-year-old resident of Kostroma R. Zamurayev who placed a leaflet “You elected – you are to try” on the Internet; it was acknowledged an extremist material officially.

On December 3 the Department on investigation of especially important cases of Investigatory directorate of Investigatory committee of office of public prosecutor of RF for Khakassia instituted criminal proceedings concerning extremism against 52-year-old resident of the republic Alexander Ishchenko who disseminated the materials of “People’s volunteer corps” of V. Kvachkov.

On December 11 the department on investigation of especially important cases of investigatory directorate of investigatory committee under office of public prosecutor for Yaroslavl region brought an accusation of grave and especially grave crimes motivated by xenophobia against four young people.

On December 11 it became known about institution of criminal proceedings concerning the fact of publication of extremist orientation materials against the owner of website “Russian ethnic movement of Magnitogorsk”.

On December 2 the militia detained about 100 nationalists who were going to “people’s gathering” to “Rechnik” settlement.

On December 9 a search was conducted in the house of Perm nationalist I. Raszhivin.

On December 14 it became known that office of public prosecutor of Bashkiria accused local authorities of supporting artificial infusion of tension in the region. In the opinion of the department, Bashkir officials helped local youth organizations in dissemination in mass media of the slogans that accompanied anti-federal action in Ufa.

Up to mid-December the Federal list of extremist materials numbered 453 items (nominally 454 but one item was excluded according to the court decision).

On December 4 the investigator of Babushkinsky office of public prosecutor Fomichev brought an accusation against Limonov’s follower Nikolay Avdyushenkov under clause 282.2 of CC of RF (“Participation in activity of extremist community”) for sticking of extremist content leaflet that allegedly took place though the leaflets themselves were found in the wardrobe of the apartment where the National-Bolsheviks lived and were not stuck.