The following is our review of the primary and most representative events in misuse of Russia's anti-extremist legislation in August 2019.

Lawmaking

In early August, the Russian president signed a law on crowdinvesting, which prohibits persons included on the Federal Financial Monitoring Service (Rosfinmonitoring) list of extremists and terrorists from owning crowdinvesting platforms or using them to solicit funds.

In mid-August, the Federal Service for Supervision in the Sphere of Telecom, Information Technologies and Mass Communications (Roskomnadzor) published a draft update of the order regarding the criteria for blocking information prohibited for distribution in Russia. It establishes that the Federal Agency for Youth Affairs (Rosmolodezh), which received the authority to block Internet resources in December 2018, shall block the following: information from “Columbine communities,” incitement to bullying, mass brawls, transport surfing, or inhaling chemical vapors (probably nitrous oxide and other similar substances), and information justifying cruelty to people and animals or approving of criminal communities (such as A.U.E. subculture). Hopefully, this order will eliminate the legal uncertainty that resulted from the vague wording of the law on the internet blocking mandate of Rosmolodezh.

Prosecutions for Incitement to Hatred and Oppositional Statements

In August, we recorded several terminations of inappropriate prosecutions against members of the opposition opened under criminal articles related to extremism.

In late August, the Sevastopol City Court overturned the sentence of Valery Bolshakov – the former head of the Sevastopol Workers Union and the secretary of the Sevastopol branch of the Russian United Labor Front Party (ROT FRONT) – who had received a suspended sentence of two and a half years under Article 280 Parts 1 and 2 of the Criminal Code. The case was returned to the prosecutor’s office “for additional investigation, elimination of formal flaws and concretization of the charges.” The charges are known to be related to publications, in which, according to investigators, Bolshakov called for overthrowing the “Putin’s regime” and establishing the “dictatorship of the proletariat.” The case also involved charges related to Bolshakov’s one-man picket, which was allegedly motivated by his “persistent hostile and intolerant attitude toward representatives of the government.” We do not know whether Bolshakov’s statements contained calls for the violent overthrow of the government presenting a public danger and meriting criminal prosecution, however, “persistent hostile and intolerant attitude toward representatives of the government” is not listed among the signs of extremist activity, as described in the relevant federal law.

The criminal prosecution against Boris Zolotarevsky, the former coordinator of Alexei Navalny’s headquarters, has been discontinued in Chelyabinsk. The activist was charged with hooliganism committed on the basis of political hatred by an organized group and resisting a government representative in connection with the non-permitted protest rally “He is Not Our Tsar” held in 2018. The investigation concluded that, although Zolotarevsky had served as the action’s organizer, he had been detained before its start and, therefore, had not been involved in the crime. We would like to point out that, in our opinion, it is not appropriate to qualify group violations of the rules for holding a political event – especially if not accompanied by violence and unrest – as hooliganism based on political hatred.

Danil Alferiev, a Left Bloc activist from Ulyanovsk, even managed to win a payout of 200 thousand rubles for illegal criminal prosecution against him under Article 282 Part 1 (incitement to hatred) and Article 280 Part 1 (public incitement to extremist activity) of the Criminal Code. He was charged in 2016 with inciting hatred against the social group “representatives of the authorities” based on the speech he delivered at a rally, in which he called for “cleansing Russia from the occupation,” if given the corresponding order by Gennady Zyuganov. His case was dropped in 2017. We viewed the prosecution against Alferiev under Article 282 of the Criminal Code as inappropriate, since the authorities should not be considered a vulnerable social group in need of protection under anti-extremist legislation; we also doubted the validity of the charge under Article 280 of the Criminal Code, since Alferiev’s appeal did not seem to present significant public danger.

In August, we became aware of several cases of inappropriate use by law enforcement agencies of the norms related to the blanket prohibition of displaying banned symbols.

Almetyevsk resident Ramil Sharipov spent five days under arrest in early August under Article 20.3 Part 1 of the Code of Administrative Offenses (public display of banned symbols) for publishing on VKontakte a video of the song “United People” by Igor Talkov Jr., which contained a Kolovrat symbol. Article 20.3 of the Code of Administrative Offenses was utilized based on the fact that one entry on the Federal List of Extremist Materials pertains to an image that includes this pagan symbol described as similar to the point of confusion to the Nazi swastika. However, it is unclear whether the Kolovrat from the Talkov’s video is identical to the one used in the banned image. In addition, the fact that an image was recognized as extremist does not imply a ban on the distribution of all its components. Finally and most importantly, the Kolovrat featured in the clip is easily distinguishable from the swastika and is not a symbol of any prohibited organization, therefore we view the penalty under Article 20.3 for its distribution as inappropriate.

In late August, a court in Cheboksary fined Mikhail Scheglov, a member of the Open Russia’s Chuvash Regional Council, under the same article. Back in 2014, Scheglov shared on VKontakte photos from the 1996 protest rally against the opening of the first McDonald's in St. Petersburg. The image depicts protesters holding a flag of the National Bolshevik Party (NBP). The NBP was recognized as an extremist organization in 2007 – in our opinion, inappropriately. Accordingly, we view the instances of punishment for displaying the symbols of this party as inappropriate.

A court in St. Petersburg canceled the candidate registration of Daniil Ken, an aspiring deputy in Svetlanovskoe municipality. The decision was based on the fact that Ken published on social networks leaflets, produced by his opponents, in which he was accused promoting Nazi ideology. The leaflets substantiated their claims with photographs featuring Nazi symbols, which had allegedly been published by the candidate. It is obvious, that Ken posted the images of these leaflets not to advocate Nazi ideology but to inform the public about the appearance of such propaganda materials.

Another reason for Ken's disqualification from the election was his post, in which he expressed confidence that a judge, who had made a prior decision to disqualify him from the election, would find herself in prison in the future. According to the candidate, the court found this publication to incite social discord. Meanwhile, far from being protected under anti-extremist norms due to their official position, individual civil servants, including judges, must instead be prepared for a greater extent of permissible criticism in comparison with private individuals.

In late August, the Echo of Moscow radio station in Pskov and the Pskovskaya Lenta Novostei [Pskov News Feed] media outlet lost their appeal against the Roskomnadzor warnings issued in December 2018. The warnings pertained to Svetlana Prokopieva's “Minute of Enlightenment” show that discussed the motives of an anarchist student, who had set up an explosion at the FSB office lobby in Arkhangelsk. Moreover, the position of Roskomnadzor was upheld by a court-ordered expert examination conducted during the consideration of the claim. In our opinion, Prokopieva’s show contained no signs of justifying terrorist activity. Meanwhile, she is still a suspect in a criminal case under Article 205.2 Part 2 of (public justification of terrorism in the media).

At least four people were punished in August under Article 20.1 Part 3 of the Code of Administrative Offenses for “insulting the authorities;” in at least three cases the publications in question insulted Russian President Vladimir Putin. In two cases the administrative proceedings were terminated by the courts.

Prosecutions against Religious Organizations and Believers

At least eight Jehovah's Witnesses in five regions of Russia became suspects or were charged under Article 282.2 of the Criminal Code (organizing activities of an extremist organization or participation in it) in the last days of July and in August: Daria Dulova in the Sverdlovsk Region; Alexei Smelov, Maxim Amosov and Nikolai Leshchenko in Karelia; Evgeny Aksyonov in Khabarovsky Krai, Vitaly Popov and Maxim Yeremeev in the Novosibirsk Region, and Alexei Metzger in the Perm Region. None of them were taken into custody. We believe that the 2017 decision to recognize the Jehovah's Witnesses Administrative Center in Russia and its 395 local communities as extremist organizations, which led to mass persecution of believers under Article 282.2 of the Criminal Code, was legally unfounded.

In August, we also documented several cases of administrative responsibility related to prohibitions of religious literature that we regard as inappropriate.

Earlier this month, Sheremetyevo Airport Customs announced the seizure of Fortress of the Muslim (various editions of this book are included in the Federal List of Extremist Materials) from a passenger arriving from the UAE. Cases against him were opened under Article 16.2 Part 1 (non-declaration of goods) and Article 16.3 (non-observance of interdictions and (or) restrictions on exportation of goods into the customs territory of the Eurasian Economic Union) of the Code of Administrative Offenses. Border guards at the Veseloyarsk checkpoint of Altaisky Krai seized three copies of banned books, Fortress of the Muslim and Faza'il-e-A'maal, from citizens of Kyrgyzstan.

Fortress of the Muslim is a popular collection of prayers for every day, which, in our opinion, contains no signs of incitement to religious hatred; therefore, the courts did not have grounds to recognize it as extremist. Faza'il-e-A'maal is a collection of treatises by Muhammad Zakariya Kandhlawi, an ideologist of the Islamic movement Tablighi Jamaat, which is recognized as extremist in Russia. Tablighi Jamaat was never implicated in calls for violence, and we consider its prohibition inappropriate. In our opinion, the courts also did not have sufficient grounds to ban the texts of the Tablighi Jamaat ideologues, including the treatises of Muhammad Zakariya Kandhlawi.

A report under Article 16.2 of the Code of Administrative Offenses was compiled in August by customs officers with respect to a Yekaterinburg resident, who transported Jehovah's Witnesses books, including the banned publication “What does the Bible really teach?” through Koltsovo Airport in June. In our opinion, recognition of this book as extremist, as well as the overall ban against Jehovah's Witnesses literature, was inappropriate.