Racism and Xenophobia in November 2014

The following is our monthly review of instances of xenophobia and radical nationalism, along with any government countermeasures, for the month of November 2014. The review is based on material gathered by Sova Center in the course of our daily monitoring.

In November, one person fell victim to racist and neo-Nazi violence. In Moscow, near Metro stop Sviblovo, a woman dressed in Islamic clothes was suddenly and without a visible cause attacked by a young man with a knife who stabbed her a few times in the stomach.

Since the beginning of the year, our monitoring shows that no fewer than 19 people have been killed in such incidents across Russia, with 97 more injured, while two people have received a serious threat against their life. Racist violence has been recorded in 24 regions of Russia so far this year.

November saw no fewer than eight acts of neo-Nazi vandalism. As such, since the beginning of the year, we have recorded no fewer than 48 acts of ideologically motivated vandalism, in 32 regions of Russia.

Traditionally, the Russian March of November 4 turned out to be the main public event of the autumn organized by the ultra-right. The Day of National Unity was marked this year by three mass events: the official rally-concert We Are United and two rival ultranationalist actions, both called “Russian Marches.” One of the nationalist processions took place in Lyublino, the other marched from the Oktyabrskoye Polye Metro stop to the Shchukinskaya stop. The coordination of the actions, along with their preparation, was marked by difficulties and conflicts, primarily due to factionalization within the far-right community over support or opposition to Novorossiya. Sova staff observed about 1,800 people present at the Lyublino march, the Russian March for Novorossiya at the Oktyabrskoye Polye Metro stop brought out about 1,200 people.

Several marches took place on November 4 in Saint-Petersburg. Those were the Patriotic March, a rally For Slavic Union, an unauthorized Russian Walk along the Nevsky Prospect and some pickets held in support of Russian March which had not been sanctioned.

Actions under the badge of Russian March were held in no fewer than 36 towns and cities. In many cases nationalists split over the Novorossiya issue and held separate actions.

Thus, for the first time in years the number of marchers reduced in almost all the cities, including the capital, and so did the number of cities where the Russian March somehow took place.

Of the other public actions held by nationalists in the period under review we should only mention a rally in memory of Alexander Dudin, the ultra-right activist killed in the fight with anti-fascists two years ago in Ryazan. In spite of a widespread announcement, only 30 people gathered in Ryazan on November 14. The rally was organized by the Ryazan branch of the Russians association. The leader of the branch Alexander Samokhin was detained by the local police.

We are aware of at least four November 2014 verdicts on racist violence charges that took a hate motive into account – in Archangelsk, Vladimir, Tomsk and Perm regions. Seven people were convicted. We should note the verdict against Russian nationalist Alexey Voyevodin convicted for beating a young man to death (Voyevodin had been earlier sentenced to life imprisonment).  

We have recorded no fewer than 18 verdicts on racist violence charges, taking into account the hate motive. These trials say 39 people convicted in 16 regions of the country.

We are aware of only one verdict for xenophobic vandalism this month. In Ivanovo a vandal aged 24 was sentenced to three years of imprisonment for making insulting inscriptions on the central mosque and placing a pig’s head on its fence in June 2013.

Since the beginning of the year, we have recorded three such rulings, against four people – in the Ivanovo and Tula regions, and in the Khanty-Mansi Autonomous Region.

This month 15 people were convicted, in as many rulings, on xenophobic propaganda charges in 15 regions of Russia. Nikolay Babushkin from Norilsk, National Union of Russia coordinator and administrator of VKontakte social network group Russian March-2013, received a suspended sentence of one year of corrective labor for putting xenophobic materials on the social network page. Oleg Gonchar, head of public organization South Siberia Cossack Circuit PR service, was fined 120 thousand rubles for publications in VKontakte.

This year has seen a total of 130 rulings for racist propaganda, against 132 people in 51 regions.

The Federal List of Extremist Materials was updated seven times – on November 6, 25, 26 and 28. Entries 2499-2521 were added. Materials added include Islamist militant videos and a whole series of Nazi-Skinheads’ videos from VKontakte as well as videos with speeches by Kirill Barabash and Valery Parfyonov of For Responsible Authority initiative group and a book entitled The Dead Water. Public Security Concept.