Source: https://civic-nation.org/russia/government/law_enforcement_practices/application_of_legislation_criminal_cases_court_rulings/
Timestamp: 2019-04-23 15:14:48+00:00

Document:
Residence of the Constitutional Court of Russian Federation in St. Petersburg.
In 2015, 494 people were sentenced for hate crime of varying degrees. 352 people were given a non-custodial sentence (196 people were issued fines, 88 – to corrective and compulsory labour, 62 –suspended sentences, 2 – restriction of liberty, 4 were issued a warning), 142 people were given custodial sentences (15 people were arrested for several days; others were issued various prison sentences: up to a year - 5 people, 1 to 5 years - 62 people, 5 to 10 years - 42 people, 10 to 15 years – 3 people, 15 to 20 – 6 people, 20 to 25 – 2 people, life imprisonment – 3 people. 4 people were sent for compulsory psychological treatment).
Three cases were terminated - after the expiration of the statute of limitations, due to the lack of corpus delicti, due to active repentance. The bias towards non-custodial sentences is largely due to most xenophobic offenses being committed online, such as publishing of xenophobic articles and posts, where fines and compulsory labour prove an effective punishment.
To compare, in 2014, 509 people have been sentenced for crimes and offences related to xenophobia 370 people received non-custodial sentences (212 - fines, 100 - correctional and compulsory labour, 32 - probation, 22 were issued warnings and cautions and 4 were brought to disciplinary responsibility). 139 people received custodial sentences (11 people were sentenced to several days in jail, 4 people were sentenced to prison terms of up to one year, 43 people - for the period from 1 to 5 years, 54 - for a period of 5 to 10 years, 15 - for the period from 10 to 15 years, 4 - for the period from 15 to 20 years, 4 - for the period from 20 to 25 years, and 3 - sent on compulsory treatment). One person was released from responsibility due to statute of limitations; one person was acquitted; one trial was dismissed due to active repentance; and one case is unknown. On the other hand, sentences to compulsory labour for real assaults are surprising, to say the least.
In 2013, during the same period, 583 people were convicted for such crimes, and in 2012, 305. Some decrease in the number of convicts is largely a consequence of the absence of mass riots, which resulted in an increase in the number of punished in 2013.
A slightly different picture is given by the official statistics of the General Prosecutor's Office of the Russian Federation, which gives information on registered crimes motivated by hatred. Thus, according to these data, 741 extremist crimes were committed in the first half of 2015 (557 in January-June 2014). Most of them (487) were instituted on art. 282 of the Criminal Code - the incitement of hatred or enmity. In the first half of 2014, these crimes were registered by 27.2% less (332 cases). Basically it's about crimes committed on the Internet.
Another 135 crimes were committed in the first 6 months of 2015, related to calls for extremist activity (during the same period of 2014 – 92 such cases were reported). Article 280 of the Criminal Code deals mainly with online crimes. As for offline - hate crimes, the increase was observed in murders - item “l” part 2 of Art. 105 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (6 in the first half of 2015 and 3 in the same period in 2014), and for battering - item “b” part 2 of Art. 116 of the Criminal Code (37 and 33 respectively) on the basis of hatred. Only one case increased the number of intentional infliction of serious harm to health - Part 2 of Art. 119 of the Criminal Code (3 and 2 attacks respectively).
In other cases the statistics fixed a significant drop in extremist crime. Thus, crimes committed under item "e" of Part 2 of Art. 112 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (Intentional infliction of moderate severity of harm to health) - 6 in January - June 2014 and no one in the first half of 2015. In 2 times decreased the number of crimes related to the threat of murder or infliction of grievous bodily harm (part 2, article 119 of the Criminal Code RF), in twice - hooliganism based on hate (paragraph "b" part 1, article 213 of the Criminal Code), etc.
In Russia, according to the Prosecutor General's Office of the Russian Federation, 1'329 crimes of an extremist nature were registered in 2015, which is 295 more than in 2014. The increase was mainly due to non-violent crimes - appeals, as well as the incitement of hatred and enmity. Basically, all these crimes were committed on the Internet. On the other hand, the number of registered violent crimes decreased from 134 to 115. Of these, 97 attacks were recorded.
In addition, according to the data of the General Prosecutor's Office of the Russian Federation, in 2015 there was a significant reduction in violent crimes of an extremist nature - murders - by 33%, deliberate infliction of serious harm to health - by 60%, deliberate infliction of moderate harm to health - by 44%, intentional infliction of the lung harm to health - 43%.
This became possible as a result of the toughening of the anti-extremist legislation of the Russian Federation in 2013, when it became possible to prosecute those who incited inter-group dissension on the Internet. However, in most cases, criminal cases on such articles ended in a conditional punishment, which de facto has a large educational and preventive character, since convicts, as a rule, no longer return to illegal activities.
In addition, the mass departure of activists of radical organizations from Russia affected the decrease in the number and severity of hate crimes. More than 4,000 people have gone to the war zone, where they are fighting on the side of Islamists in Syria and Iraq, a significant number of right-wing radicals went to fight in the southeast of Ukraine, where they are fighting on either side of opposing forces.
In 2014, the Federal List of Extremist Materials grew from by 368 entries to 2558 items. Among the new entries are skinhead and Islamist videos, poems of an anti-Semitic bard A. Kharchikov, neo-Nazi websites “Heroes of Freedom” and “Aryan Liberation Front”; an anti-Semitic children’s book by Ernest Khimer “Toadstool”, skinhead and Islamist videos, a song by RNE – Street Fight, various anti-Semitic materials, and website www.dpni.org; book by V. Istarkhov What is the Concept of “Dead Water”, Islamist, Islamophobic and anti-Semitic videos (including a film Russia Stabbed in the Back 2), songs of a Chechen bard T. Mutsuraev, skinhead videos, Adolf Hitler’s Mein Kampf; Islamophovic article from the Imperial Cossack Union website, skinhead and Islamist videos, articles by American racist D. Lane, a song by Corrosion of Metal, a book by Hans Gunther Selected Works on Raciology and Michael by Joseph Goebbels; brochures by Yu. Evola “Tradition and Race”, A. Rozenberg’s “Myth of the 20th century” and various nationalist, skinhead and Islamist videos and materials; nationalist songs by Kolovrat, Banda Moskvi, Kiborg and D.I.V, as well as an anti-Semitic book by G. Klimov called Red Kabbala and a video “How to distinguish a Jew from a Slav, Tikhomirov M.V. US AND THEM, and others.
In March, the Faizrakhmanist community was added to the Federal List of Extremist Organisations. The organisation was recognised as extremist in Kazan in 2013. On March 12, Roskomnadzor (Russian media watchdog – Federal Service for Supervision in the Sphere of Telecom, Information Technologies and Mass Communications) issued a warning to Lenta.ru for the interview with one of the Right Sector (Ukrainian Nationalist Movement) leaders Andrei Tarasenko published on the website. Federal watchdog noted that the article linked in the text and titled “Dmitro Yarosh: Sooner or later, we are destined to fight against the Moscow Empire” contains “statements directed at inciting interethnic hatred”.
On July 23, it was reported that 450 webpages were blocked by the Russian General Prosecution for extremist contents. Access to such websites is blocked after reports by citizens, organisations, authorities and based on the Monitoring of online space. Most extremist pages that have been blocked were hosted on VKontakte social network. These pages contained calls to mass riots and extremist actions. Prosecution receives up to 200 reports a day from citizens who complain about extremism online. Previously, head of the Ministry of Internal Affairs Vladimir Kolokoltsev stated that over the same period more than 500 websites were blocked and more than 7 thousand of extremist materials were deleted. Administrative sanctions were applied to 386 people, criminal punishment – 186 people.
On September 21, 2015, the Military-Patriotic Club “White Cross” and the neo-Nazi movement “Misanthropic division” were added to the Federal List of Extremist Organizations.
In 2012, Russia established a Council under the President of the Russian Federation on Interethnic Relations, the main task of which is to review conceptual foundations, objectives and tasks of the state national policy. A Coordinating Council on Implementing National Policy was established in 2014 under the Ministry of Culture. Councils specialising on interethnic relations are present in most regions across Russia.
At the moment, similar bodies are being set up at regional and municipal levels (in Perm , Kasimov , Bokovsky District of Rostov Oblast , Chita , Krasnoufimsk , Venevsky District of Tula Region ). Regions are developing their own programmes against xenophobia and extremism (such programmes were launched in Irkutsk , Orel , Tula and Tyumen regions, as well as in Samara ).
As of June 18, 2014, 39 regional programmes received state funding totalling 367 million rubles. Furthermore, a number of Russian courts and prosecution bodies of first and second instances ruled in favour of the unlawfully persecuted Jehovah’s Witnesses, Muslims, Russian Protestants, Catholics, as well as LGBT activists and those unlawfully accused of extremism.
On January 31, 2014 Savelovsky District Court of Moscow declared Alexander Dvorkin’s statements on Russia-1 Channel as “untrue and defamatory”. The channel was ordered to publish a retraction and pay compensation to the Vaishnavas.
On March 4, 2014 two Jehovah’s Witnesses brochures were excluded from the Federal list of extremist materials.
On May 19, Federal Antimonopoly Service sanctioned a Ryazan firm which promoted discounts for Russians and Slavs.
On January 12, police officers were able to curb the growing riot in Perm, however two Tajikistan natives received minor injuries. 134 persons were arrested, including 90 minors.
On January 21, 2014 Human Rights Ombudsman Vladimir Lukin addressed the governor of Murmansk Oblast Maria Kovtun protesting against the pressure on the Jehovah’s Witnesses. “I believe, that efforts to increase the number of followers of the religious organisation – Jehovah’s Witnesses – is legal and cannot be equated to such criminal activities as extremism. This approach can be perceived by religious citizens as an insult and disrespect to their religious feelings and beliefs"<- she said.
As a result, on January 30, heads of Murmansk municipal associations received a letter from Deputy Governor Veshkin, which retracted his last year’s instruction “On the Regional Office of Jehovah’s Witnesses”.
On Febraury 21, 2014 case against Elena Klimova – creator of “Deti-404” group – was closed in Nizhny Tagil. Children Rights Commissioner found no evidence of “propaganda of homosexuality” in the programme. Morokov praised the importance of programme supporting LGBT youth.
The number of hate crime cases in Russia has grown by 28% in 2015, most such cases, however, were related to hate speech on the Internet. Such offences are usually punished by non-custodial sentences, and repeat offences are unlikely. During the monitored period, 494 people have been sentenced for hate crime in Russia (509 in 2014), 352 of which were given non-custodial sentences. However, the general number of violent hate crime fell by 14% compared to the previous year (115 in 2015; 134 in 2014). This decrease is largely due to effective preventative policies carried out across the country.
According to the head of the Agency, at the end of 2015 this program helped to localize several possible conflicts at the initial stage. By the end of October 2016, 82 regions of the Russian Federation were connected to the monitoring system. The Agency also started to develop methodological recommendations and model schemes for responding to interethnic and interfaith conflicts.
The same Federal Agency in October 2016 took the initiative and held the first All-Russian action "Big Ethnographic Dictation" at 800 venues across the country. Ninety thousand people took part in it. The action was carried out in accordance with the Strategy of the State National Policy of the Russian Federation until 2025 and was aimed at mass acquaintance of the inhabitants of the country with the customs of its peoples. This initiative, according to experts, is extremely important in terms of overcoming xenophobic prejudices and, as a consequence, preventing hate crimes, since the main reason for these phenomena is the lack of knowledge about their neighbors.
In 2016, multifunctional migration centers were established in Russia. They allowed to pass all stages of obtaining a patent for labor activity in one location. The situation was not affected even by the abolition in April 2016 of the Federal Migration Service and the transfer of its functions to the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation.
In 2016, more than 16.3 million foreign citizens were registered in the migration register. In this regard, the head of the department of regional security and anti-corruption of the Moscow mayor's office, Alexei Mayorov, said that due to the system, in two years the number of counterfeit medical documents or papers about alleged knowledge of the Russian language was reduced almost to zero.
The active work of law enforcement agencies in suppressing extremist crimes was registered in Russia in 2016, which led to a decrease in violent hate crimes (by 33%), while the number of registered non-violent crimes grew by 9%.
According to the Russian prosecutor's office, almost all of the potential offenders before they take up arms and commit violent crime, they trying to find accomplices in the Network and to spread the hate there. If law enforcement authorities manage to stop them at this stage, they, as a rule, refuses to commit violence.
In March 2016 the administration of the Tula region in Russia had to resolve the issue of illegal Roma constructions in the village of Kosaya Gora. By the decision of the regional court, all illegal structures were to be demolished. Regional administration decided to provide the Roma families whose houses are to be demolished, new plots of land 10 km from Tula in the village Sudakovo, where the local authorities resolved the issue of providing gas and water. Gypsy families were provided with transport services to new places.
In the village of Plekhanovo, Tula region, the largest gypsy settlement in central Russia is located. The authorities had to conduct a whole police operation to eliminate illegal connections to life support systems. At the same time, policemen had to protect repair workers, who became targets of attacks by local residents. Also in the village more than 100 illegal Roma residential buildings were demolished. Their dismantling was carried out by court decision in several stages. At the same time, new land plots were transferred to Roma families and the issue of connecting to communications was resolved.
At the present moment, the authorities of Tula have adopted a comprehensive program for the development of Plekhanovo in the next two years. Priority issues for the improvement of the territory are water disposal and water supply, lighting, repair of roads and sidewalks, construction, and improvement of social facilities and public places.

References: art. 282
 Art. 105
 Art. 116
 Art. 119
 Art. 112
 V.