Review of Moscow bureau for human rights

Attacks 

During first six months of 2010 90 attacks motivated by aggressive xenophobia were recorded, 22 persons perished and 105 – were wounded. 

During similar period of 2009 43 dead and 168 wounded were recorded, in 2008 – 78 dead, 268 wounded. 

Among the problem regions where activity of “the brown” appeared the following can be marked out: Moscow and Moscow region (11 dead, 37 wounded), Nizhniy Novgorod region (2 dead, 3 wounded), Republic of Daghestan (1 dead, 6 wounded), Altay region (1 dead, 3 wounded at least), Vladivostok, Yaroslavl region (1 dead, 1 wounded), Kaliningrad region, Omsk region, Ryazan region, and Karachai-Cherkess (1 dead each), St. Petersburg and Leningrad region (17 wounded), Kabardino-Balkaria (6 wounded), Tomsk region (4 wounded), Udmurtia (3 wounded), Khabarovsk region (3 wounded), Penza (2 wounded), Orel (2 wounded), Ryazan (2 wounded), Kostroma (2 wounded), Smolensk region (2 wounded), Irkutsk (1 wounded), Murmansk region (1 wounded), Samara region (2 wounded), Saratov region (1 wounded), Sverdlovsk region (1 wounded), Rostov region (1 wounded), Tver region (1 wounded), Ulyanovsk region (1 wounded), Voronezh region (1 wounded). 

The objects of attacks include: the Kirghiz (2 dead, 5 wounded), Koreans (1 dead, 3 wounded), Russians (1 dead, 67 wounded), Tajiks (1 dead, 12 wounded), Uzbeks (1 dead, 8 wounded), Daghestanis (1 dead, 6 wounded), Abkhazians (1 dead, 2 wounded), Kalmyks (1 dead, 1 wounded), Circassians (1 dead), natives of Africa (4 wounded), Buryats (4 wounded), Azerbaijanis (3 wounded), the Vietnamese (2 wounded), the Chinese (2 wounded), Arabs (1 wounded), Armenians (2 wounded), Germans (1 wounded), Tuvinians (1 wounded), Jews (2 wounded), Mexicans (1 wounded), Tatars (1 wounded), Georgians (1 wounded), Yakuts (1 wounded), Indians (1 wounded). 
 

On June 12 in St. Petersburg the skinheads had beaten a Georgian in the underground. 

On June 13 the student from Yakutia A. Migalkina was beaten in Moscow. 

On June 26 in St. Petersburg at Dvortsovaya square the skinheads tried to beat three women taking them for participants of gay-parade. 

In Smolensk region an attack was committed on a student from India and a native of Uzbekistan. 
 

Vandalism 

Totally during first six months of 2010 68 cases of vandalism were recorded including 8 cases in June. 

On the night of June 2 unknown persons penetrated onto the territory of Moslem cemetery “Urenga” in Zlatoust and threw down 15 tombstones there. 

On June 3 in Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk inscriptions with appeals to extremist activity and violence towards migrants were discovered on the houses and shops. 

On June 7 in Ural city Revda RNE leaflets were found. 

In Tosno (Leningrad region) fascist symbols in the form of swastika and Nazi slogans were placed with dark paint on the façade of a house near “Samson” shop. 

On June 12 Nazi graffiti were discovered in Yaroslavl. 

Hand-made explosive was actuated on the night of June 21 in Tver near the building of synagogue. The main entrance was partially destroyed due to the explosion. 

On June 24 the synagogue in Krasnoyarsk was subject to attack. The glass in one of its windows was broken due to the attack. 

On June 28 unknown persons, probably Satanists, desecrated the graves at Vysokovskoye cemetery in Nizhniy Novgorod. 

St. Petersburg nationalists from DPNI wanted to place banners telling about the defeat of Khazarian khaganate by Kiev prince Svyatoslav upon the buses; this event is interpreted by nationalists as a victory over Jewry. But advertisement agency on the transport rejected the placing of corresponding poster by them “due to possible ambiguous public response to this layout”. 
 

"Primorye syndrome" and making heroes of its bearers 

Judging by the texts by nationalistic activists, their hope of forthcoming “mass uprising” took almost hysterical forms reminding the prophecies of “patriotic” press in 1992-1993 that “Yeltsin’s regime would fall soon”. The next story that caused inadequate response of nationalists became so-called “Primorye partisan syndrome”. It should be reminded: a group of armed nationalistically orientated youth of six persons (two of them as a minimum were skinheads) committed several attacks on militiamen in Primorye in late May – early June. It was initially announced that the group was led by some Roman Muromtsev. On behalf of him two appeals were published on the Internet. “ORDER No 1 of Commander of Russian Army in the Far East” placed on June 7 called to “forming partisan groups for elimination of national traitors and turncoats of Russia”, “in case of liberation of Far East from occupational troops and with the purpose of preventing redeployment of occupational forces of anti-popular regime, blocking railway tracks and motorways of airport …” and catching power locally.

On June 8 an appeal to colonel Kvachkov appeared: “We can’t bear the outrage of the world behind-the-scenes any more as it works terror on our land …We, special mission units of airborne troops, rose to armed struggle against the usurpers of our country. We are already waging armed combat against them KILLING THESE VENAL LOUSERS … We rose against the Jewish fascism like our glorious grandfathers and fathers stood up against German invaders in 1941 …”. 

On June 10 V. Kralin wrote in his blog with delight: “No doubt that this is the first swallow – and its experience would be spread around”. On June 12 he stated with a threat that “if large-scale political changes do not start taking place in Russia then such reports about partisans in Russia would be heard more and more often”.

In some posts dated June 13 V. Kralin announced that “the force came out to the political forefront – being spontaneous, network, not coordinated yet but nevertheless quite capable for comprehension of our common interests, understanding of threats and enemies for ourselves – and above all most capable for training”; “mass synchronous process of desacralization of current political regime takes place in millions individual brains now”.

A. Savelyev announced that events in Primorye are the “national tragedy, and Russo-phobic authority is to blame for this”.

On DPNI website several articles were published glorifying “Primorye residents”; these articles told about extensive support of ”insurgents” (80 and even 90% according to interrogations in blogs and forums). The reality proved to be not so optimistic at all. An interrogation was held on website of Agency of political news controlled by nationalists – and just 30% of its participants called the “partisans” the “patriots of their country and their nation who combat against the criminal regime”, and 5% else stated they sympathized them “purely emotionally”. 
 

Public actions of nationalists 

On June 13 DPNI members of St. Petersburg held a mobile unauthorized picket in various points of the city with appeal to Kirghiz gastarbeiters “to go back to their motherland and take part in person in establishment of order and in protection of their folks”. 

On June 25 DPNI arranged passing of an Open letter to the President to the Administration of the President of RF with expression of protest against construction of new markets in Moscow and Moscow region. 
 

Migrants and migrant-phobia 

On June 23 the first vice-premier of RF Igor Shuvalov stated during the “Government hour” in the Federation Council that the RF Government may make decisions up to autumn concerning liberalization of labor market for foreign workers. He is positive that not just highly skilled specialists are lacking in Russia now but also “manpower that would be engaged in the work at construction objects we don’t want to be engaged in”. 

About 6,8 mln. migrants reside on the territory of Russia at present, and at the same time approximately 3,7 mln. of them work illegally as they have no corresponding permissions, the head of the Federal migratory service Konstantin Romodanovsky stated on June 20. 

The nationalist N. Kholmogorova demagogically stated commenting upon the proposals of Moscow mayor’s office about creation of a code of Muscovite that main problems with the newcomers are their “criminality” and “neglectful, selfish or directly predatory attitude towards those who don’t look like them – towards native residents of Russia”. 

According to interrogation conducted by research center of portal SuperJob at the request of journal “Profile”, the results of which were published early in June, 29% of Muscovites thought that migrants should live all around the city and 39% thought they should be concentrated within ethnic quarters. 

During the interrogation conducted during first six months of 2010 in Russian State Pedagogical university named after Herzen (St. Petersburg), fifteen students among twenty responded to the question “what diaspora is” that this is a criminal group, and five of the rest added that it is organized basing upon ethnicity too. 
 

Xenophobic publications in mass media 

On June 11 Krasnoyarsk TV company TVK issued a subject where it tried to persuade the spectators that Islamic extremists from organization “Nurdjullar” are operating on the regional territory. At the same time a picture of Daghestani Islamists was used as a video portion. 
 

Use of pseudo-human rights rhetoric 

Director of Human rights center of the World Russian people’s council Roman Silantyev stated on June 23 that “liberal human rights activists and journalists” are to blame for rehabilitation of fascism to a great extent. R. Silantyev stressed that they “combated against the “damned past” and labeled their opponents as fascists so zealously that finally they equated Stalin and Hitler, a soldier of the Red Army and SS member”. In his opinion, “so-called antifascists” made their contribution into this destructive process “as they are taken by broad public, due to their hooligan demarches, not for fighters against fascist ideology but for aggressive aggregate of marginal minorities”. 
 

Xenophobia and mass consciousness 

VTsIOM interrogation conducted on June 5-6 shows that self-identification as Russians prevails among the RF population. Answering the question “Who am I?” 58% chose the response “citizen of Russia”, 18% chose the ethnic identification and 5% - the religious identification. 
 

Xenophobia in the field of religion 

In June the facts of pressure upon the Jehovah’s Witnesses were still recorded. On June 4 it became known about institution of criminal proceedings against Omsk “Jehovah’s Witnesses” under clause 282 part 1 of the CC of RF for dissemination of doctrinal literature.

On the same day, on June 4, searches were conducted in the houses of Omsk “Witnesses”. 

In June the office of public prosecutor of Tula region announced the warnings to three members of territorial organization of the “Jehovah’s Witnesses” after the book “What the Bible teaches in fact?” included into the Federal list of extremist materials was found in their houses. 

For late June, two women – members of organization “Jehovah’s Witnesses” who were detained during sermonic service remained in investigatory isolator for more than six weeks on accusation of residential burglaries in Moscow region. 

On June 2 it became known that human rights activists intend to dispute some provisions of the federal law “On counteraction to extremist activity” in the Constitutional court of Russia due to liquidation of some regional branches of the “Jehovah’s Witnesses”. The member of the council on support of development of civil society institutions and human rights under the President of RF Sergey Krivenko stated this in his interview to “Interfax”. It was also announced then that the Jehovah’s Witnesses brought an action to the European court of human rights. They intend to appeal against the December sentence of the Supreme court of RF that supported the decision of Rostov regional court which banned the organization “Taganrog” – branch of the Jehovah’s Witnesses in Rostov region. 

On June 10 it became known that the European court of human rights in Strasbourg found the decision of Moscow court dated 2004 about closure of the branch of religious organization “Jehovah’s Witnesses” illegal. The court also obliged Russia to pay 70 thousand Euro to the organization as a compensation for judicial charges and caused moral damage. 

On June 22 the Commissioner on human rights V. Lukin sent an application to the Presidium of the Supreme court of Russian Federation about revision of decision of Rostov regional court dated September 11, 2009 that came into force concerning the case No 3-1/09 about acknowledgement of literature disseminated by the organization of Jehovah’s Witnesses extremist and about acknowledgement of local religious organization of the Jehovah’s Witnesses “Taganrog” extremist and its liquidation. 

On June 28 professor of Moscow spiritual academy, famous publicist archdeacon Andrey Kurayev proposed to issue the court prohibition for conduction of exhibitions of some Russian art gallery organizers including the authors of exhibition “Forbidden art 2006” Yuri Samodurov and Andrey Yerofeyev as well as art gallery organizer Marat Gelman. In his opinion, this measure would save them from judicial persecution. At the same time the minister of culture of Russia Alexander Avdeyev stated that “public estimate of exhibition should be moral-ethic but not judicial” noting that Samodurov and Yerofeyev did not cross the “red line” of the law. 

During first-half June new evidences of radical Islamization of North-Caucasian republics appeared. On June 1 the interview of the president of Chechnya R. Kadyrov to the reporter of newspaper “Figaro” was published. The Chechen leader stated in this interview that the Shariat is above the laws of Russian Federation. 

On June 11 it became known that since early June unknown persons in Chechnya shoot with paintball arms at the women who go out to the streets with uncovered heads. 
 

Response of authorities to xenophobia 

On June 24 it became known about the initiative of the Federal security service to provide a possibility to close extremist websites in a term of three days for the Russian coercive structures. It is stated in the amendments to the law “On information, informational technologies and protection of information” in force that were proposed by the department that Internet-providers should be obliged to suspend operation of domains after a letter from the office of public prosecutor.

Blocking of domain can be executed for the term of a month at the most and after that, if the case on extremism is terminated or the court finds the website content legal, access to it should be restored.

Besides, the amendments contain a proposal to oblige the providers to store the information about domain owners for half a year and provide it to the coercive structures at their request. 
 

Public against xenophobia 

More than five thousand people took part in the Second annual children’s educational festival “Command “Tolerance” that took place on June 12 in Moscow. The principal idea of this activity is to demonstrate universal moral, aesthetic, scientific laws and principles that unite people regardless of nationality and religion to the children and grown-ups. For this purpose the festival participants got an opportunity to visit several educational “stations” devoted to three main subjects: “Science of the world”, “Art of the world”, “Traditions of the world”. 

On June 18 the Regional youth council on human rights of Murmansk region was established. The main purposes of the Council are education in the sphere of human rights and counteraction to dissemination of ideologies based upon intolerant attitude towards any social group (racism, chauvinism, radical nationalism, sexism, homophobia, anti-Semitism, religious intolerance), discrimination and disrespect of human rights among the population of Murmansk region. 

The film “Buryatia – territory of tolerance” won at the 4th All-Russian festival of video films about folk arts, traditional culture and ethnography “From a clean source” that took place in Irkutsk in June. 

During the meeting of the Council of Assembly of peoples of Transbaikalia that was held late in June and participated by leaders of ethnic and religious associations, representatives of law-enforcement structures – FSB, office of public prosecutor, justice, regional Center for combat against extremism of Directorate of home affairs for Transbaikalian region, deputy rectors of Chita colleges on educational work, the problems of counteraction to extremism and terrorism were discussed. 
 

Law-enforcement practice 

During first six months of 2010 199 persons were convicted for crimes motivated by xenophobia. 23 persons were sentenced to correctional or compulsory work, 73 – got suspended sentences, 20 persons were sentenced to fines, 31 - to 1-5-year imprisonment, 30 – to 5-10-year imprisonment, 4 – to 10-15-year imprisonment, 7 – to 15-20-year imprisonment, 4 – to 20-25-year imprisonment, 1 – to life imprisonment. Five persons were released from liability due to expiration of statute of limitation. 

During similar period of 2009 143 persons were convicted for crimes motivated by aggressive xenophobia, in 2008 – 135 persons. 

During June 27 persons were convicted. Among them three persons were sentenced to fines, one – to compulsory work, 7 – got suspended sentences, 8 persons were sentenced to 1-5-year imprisonment, 7 – to 5-10-year imprisonment and one – to life imprisonment. 

Extremely high share of suspended sentences attracts attention as well as most negligible application of vindictive damages – judging by available practice, they showed much bigger efficiency. 

On June 1 Krasnooktyabrsky district court of Volgograd passed a guilty sentence on 18-year-old Dmitry Koblov and his age-mate Alexey Kudryavtsev who had stroke the African American Stanley Robinson with a knife in 2008. Dmitry Koblov was sentenced to 6-year imprisonment and Alexey Kudryavtsev – to 8-year imprisonment. 

On June 1 the enactment of justice of the peace of first judicial area of Novosibirsk found the second-year student of Novosibirsk state university Semyon Drobot guilty of dissemination of the film “Russia with a knife in its back” included into the Federal list of extremist materials; he got the punishment of an administrative fine of 1000 rubles. 

On June 2 Oktyabrsky district court of Vladimir passed a sentence within the criminal case against 28-year-old local resident Sergey Khlupin who tried to explode the concert of the singer Boris Moiseyev and Cyril and Methodius temple. The court sentenced Sergey Khlupin to 3-year imprisonment with serving the punishment in colony-settlement. 

On June 2 Zheleznodorozhny district court of Ryazan passed a sentence within the criminal case against 20-year-old Anton Kuleshov and 17-year-old Yaroslav Kutyrkin who had beaten an African on April 20, 2009. The court prescribed the punishment for Kuleshov as a suspended sentence of 3-year imprisonment with probationary period of 2 years and for Kutyrkin – as a suspended sentence of 2-year imprisonment with probationary period of 1,5 years and fine of 2000 rubles. 

On June 4 Chelyabinsk regional court passed a sentence on the members of criminal group of extremists-Islamists “Hizb ut-Tahrir al-Islami”. Anzor Akiyev and Salavat Khabirov were sentenced to 3,5-year imprisonment without a fine with serving the punishment in colony-settlement. Ayrat Lukmanov was sentenced to 4-year imprisonment without a fine with serving the punishment in colony-settlement. Vadim Kabirov was sentenced to 2-year imprisonment with serving the punishment in colony-settlement and Vadim Nasyrov was sentenced to 1,5-year imprisonment with serving the punishment in colony-settlement. 

On June 9 Sovetsky district court of Bryansk sentenced the resident of Voronezh Denis Melnikov who had beaten an Armenian in Bryansk in July 2009 to 5,5-year imprisonment. 

On June 10 the decision of Verkh-Isetsky district court in Yekaterinburg about acknowledgement of book by Vladimir Istarkhov “Blow of Russian gods” extremist came into effect according to decision of Sverdlovsk regional court. 

On June 15 Pervomaisky district court of Izhevsk (Udmurtia) passed a guilty sentence on local resident who drew Nazi symbols and inscriptions on the building of Jewish community center in Izhevsk. He got a suspended sentence. 

On June 15 Industrial district court of Izhevsk convicted 19-year-old residents of the city Pavel Fokeyev and Pavel Kondratyev who had beaten a teenager-Azerbaijani in October 2008. They got punishment of 5,5-year imprisonment each with serving the punishment in correctional general regime colony. 

On June 15 Ostankinsky court of Moscow terminated the activity of the newspaper “To the barrier!” published by the famous nationalist Yu. Mukhin. 

On June 16 the sentence was passed on a resident of Kursk who drew xenophobic graffiti in February 2010 on the walls of houses. He got suspended sentence. 

On June 16 Nizhniy Novgorod regional court passed a sentence on a skinhead group of three persons. Alexander Degtyarev who committed four murders including that of his teacher Aseyev and participated in two attempted murders was sentenced to life imprisonment by the court. Artyom Surkov who committed three murders and six attempted murders was sentenced to 10-year imprisonment in the colony and Maxim Alyoshin who committed five attempted murders was sentenced to 9,5-year imprisonment in the colony. 

On June 21 Boksitogorsk city court found the materials placed on the blog of ex-militiaman Alexander Smirnov extremist. The court also decided to close the blog. 

On June 23 Roscomnadzor issued a written warning about inadmissibility of breaking the legislation of Russian Federation in force to electronic periodical controlled by nationalists “Agency of political news” (“APN”, http://www.apn.ru). 

On June 28 Oktyabrsky court of Izhevsk acknowledged so-called “White ABC book” placed on one of websites on the Internet to be the extremist material. 

During first six months of 2010 warnings were announced to three residents of Tula for attempts to disseminate the book “Blow of Russian gods” on the Internet. 

On June 1 the Supreme court of Chuvashia reduced the sentence on a student from Cheboksary convicted for beating of students from Equatorial Guinea and placing of xenophobic graffiti replacing the real punishment with a suspended sentence. 

On June 1 the panel of judges of the City court of St. Petersburg did not satisfy an appeal of the editor-in-chief of newspaper “Orthodox Rus” Konstantin Dushenov, Pyotr Meleshko and Alexander Malyshev. 

On June 9 Krasnodar regional court did not change the sentence on organizer and one of members of a skin band “Pete Bull”. 

On June 10 the Supreme court of RF left the sentence within the case about murder of a teenager motivated by ethnic hatred and hostility in Voronezh in March 2008 in force. 

On June 29 the Supreme court denied an appeal of the leader of “Slavic union” D. Dyomushkin concerning enactment about prohibition of activity of the organization. 

On June 3 in Obninsk city court the first sitting of the court took place within the case of a skinhead gang that killed a citizen of republic of Tajikistan in August 2009. They are also accused of plunder and placing of xenophobic graffiti. 

On June 4 the case of so-called Slavic separatists – nationalists-native-believers David Bashelutskov, Stanislav Lukhmyrin and Yevgenia Zhikhareva – was brought to the Moscow city court. 

On June 24 it became known that the Investigatory department for Prioksky district of Investigatory directorate of Investigatory committee of office of public prosecutor (SKP) of RF completed the investigation of criminal case against 42-year-old resident of Nizhniy Novgorod who placed the statements with appeals to kill the Patriarch of Moscow and whole Rus Kirill on website “Vkontakte” on his own page as well as other statements aimed at incitement of hatred and hostility motivated by religious belonging. 

On June 25 the Office of general public prosecutor of RF approved the indictment against 19-year-old Andrey Gordeyev, Konstantin Kuchera, Vladislav Polyakov and 23-year-old Anton Vasilyev accused of committing several attacks and explosions motivated by xenophobia in Moscow in 2008-2009. 

On June 4 mass media informed about institution of criminal proceedings against two residents of Yaroslavl who tried to agitate the teenagers for joining the movement of skinheads. 

On June 9 the investigatory department for Veliky Novgorod of Investigatory directorate of Investigatory committee for Novgorod region instituted criminal proceedings against 21-year-old resident of Veliky Novgorod suspected of placing the video files of xenophobic contents on his page in social network “Vkontakte”. 

On June 17 in Kamchatka region the accusation was brought against 19-year-old pupil of trade school of placement of video materials of extremist character in local file exchange network of the provider company of cable TV and Internet SC “SKTV plus”. 

On June 25 in Yekaterinburg criminal proceedings were instituted against four teenagers who committed arson of hostel of Urals state economic university where the natives of Middle Asia reside. 

On June 27 law-enforcement bodies of Mikhailovsk city of Stavropol region brought an accusation of incitement of ethnic hatred (clause 282 part 1 of the CC of RF) against 35-year-old local resident who wrote pro-Nazi inscriptions in April 2010 on the monument to Lenin. 

On June 4 in Vorkuta militia detained 18-year-old native of Transcaucasia suspected of incitement of ethnic dissension. The malefactor placed video-reels with murders of “persons of Slavic appearance” on the Internet. 

On June 22 large-scale searches and confiscations of technique, literature and property in apartments and service rooms of participants of organization “Russian all-national union” (RONS) took place in several cities of Russia: Moscow (3 searches), Vladimir (4 searches), Pokrov (3 searches), Dimitrovgrad (2 searches), Ryazan (3 searches), Rostov (2 searches) and Nizhniy Novgorod, Dzerzhinsk, Sarov, Diveyevo (6 searches). 

On June 24 a group of skinheads of 13 persons was detained on the bank of Vyatka river by employees of Mamadyshsky Department of home affairs together with department of Center for counteraction to extremism of Ministry of home affairs for Republic of Tatarstan for Trans-Kama zone. 

On June 24 employees of the Center on combat against extremism of Chief directorate of Ministry of home affairs for Volga federal district detained the leader of Nizhniy Novgorod cell of international religious organization “Nurdjular”. 

On June 15 the Enactment of Plenum of the Supreme court of Russian Federation “On the practice of application of the Law of Russian Federation “On mass media” by the courts” was passed. The enactment noted that during solution of cases connected with activity of mass media it is necessary to take into account that execution of freedom of expression of opinions and freedom of mass media imposes special obligations, special responsibility and may be associated with limitations established by the law and being necessary in democratic society for respect towards the rights and reputation of other persons, protection of state security and public order, prevention of disasters and crimes, protection of health and morality, prevention of disclosure of information acquired confidentially, provision of authority and impartiality of justice. Among other things, the Plenum of the Supreme court enacted that in case of availability of readers’ comments being an abuse of freedom of speech, appeal of an authorized state body must be first sent to the editorial office with demand to delete or edit the comment. And only in case of its non-fulfillment it may deal with the warning and addressing to court. 

On June 18 the Office of general public prosecutor of Russian Federation issued the presentation addressed to the minister of education and science of Russian Federation concerning removal of breaches of legislation on interethnic relations and counteraction to extremism. The following things were rated among the breaches: record of nationality in personal dossier of the pupil, lack of regulation of teaching of native (non-Russian) language without damage for federal component of federal basic curriculum, lack of adjustment of expert examination of manuals, deficiencies in the system of filtration of access to the Internet installed on the school computers. 

Unfortunately one can speak about preservation of tendency to illegitimate application of anti-extremist legislation.

On June 1 Kirovsky district court of Yekaterinburg acknowledged the “Appeal to militia” signed by the politician Eduard Limonov and writer Zakhar Prilepin to be the extremist material.

On June 1 the Department for investigation of especially important cases of investigatory committee of SKP of RF for Ryazan region instituted criminal proceedings against newspaper “Evening Ryazan”; in its news story dated April 29 incitement of hatred or hostility, humiliation of dignity of a human or group of humans motivated by their belonging to a social group of persons – militia employees as well as to militia in general was found.

On June 24 it became known that the office of public prosecutor of St. Petersburg would check the newspaper of branch of “Fair Russia” concerning availability of extremist character materials. The grounds for inspection became the complaints that came supposedly from supporters of “United Russia” that the newspaper contained the materials inciting social dissension. In fact it deals with materials with criticism of members of “United Russia”.

On the other hand, on June 9 the Supreme court of Bashkiria cancelled the decision of Kirovsky district court about acknowledgement of opposition website “UfaGub” extremist. 

Another regretful tradition that remained from past years – is the tendency to interpret the crimes motivated by xenophobia as “common, everyday” ones. Law-enforcement bodies of Ryazan region, while investigating the murder of anti-fascist K. Lunkin, announced that the attack was of exclusively hooligan character.

On June 21 it became known that towards Nikita Tikhonov accused of murder of the lawyer Stanislav Markelov the criminal persecution was terminated within the case of murder of anti-fascist Alexander Ryukhin in 2006.

The fact became the reason for this that three of convicted within the case of Ryukhin did not finally recognize Tikhonov. The nationalists announced immediately that this is one more step in acknowledgement of Tikhonov’s innocence within the case about the murder of Markelov.

After the action of Kirovsky district court of Ufa, on June 18 the book by B. Mussolini “Doctrine of fascism” was acknowledged the extremist material. Such a decision (like the earlier decision about Hitler’s work “Mein Kampf”) is obviously needless as the acknowledgement of similar materials extremist is already available in the text of the law on combat against extremism.