The following is our review of anti-extremist law enforcement in October 2025.

We have learned of 32 sentences handed down in October against 47 individuals on charges of involvement in extremist and terrorist groups and organizations whose activities we monitor. Specifically, a court in the Moscow region issued a verdict against four administrators of the nationalist Telegram channel Natsdem. A member of the neo-pagan movement Ak Tyan faced sanctions in Altai. Seven people were punished for their involvement with the Ukraine-based Russian Volunteer Corps (Russkiy dobrovolcheskiy korpus, RDK) and the Freedom of Russia Legion (Legion “Svoboda Rossii,” LSR). Two others faced punishment for their connections to the AUE criminal subculture, one for ties to the Artpodgotovka movement, and another for involvement in the Columbine subculture, which is banned as a terrorist organization.

We consider 17 sentences against 27 individuals to be clearly inappropriate. These were issued in the cases of 20 Jehovah's Witnesses charged with continuing the activities of their banned organizations, as well as in cases involving the financing of the Anti-Corruption Foundation (FBK) after it was designated an extremist organization.

Seventeen people were sentenced to imprisonment, 23 received suspended sentences, six faced fines, and forced labor was imposed in one case. In addition, one woman was referred for compulsory psychiatric treatment.

In total, since the beginning of the year, we know of 232 such sentences against 352 people. Of these, we classified 122 sentences involving 175 individuals as completely or partially inappropriate. Since the beginning of the year, at least two people have been referred for compulsory treatment.

We have learned that at least 15 such cases against at least 47 people were initiated in October. They are charged with involvement in banned “Citizens of the USSR” communities, the Artpodgotovka movement, the Anti-War Committee of Russia, the radical Islamic party Hizb ut-Tahrir, and Jehovah's Witnesses communities, as well as with providing funds to the FBK.

We have information on 39 sentences against 43 individuals issued in October under the Criminal Code (CC) articles on public statements of interest to us. Six of these sentences (against six people) we view as completely or partially inappropriate.

Convictions can be grouped into the following partly overlapping categories based on the statements’ targets:

• Twelve people were convicted for expressing ethnic xenophobia, primarily for statements against Jews, Roma, and other ethnic groups posted on social media. Among others, blogger Areg Shchepikhin was sentenced to five years in prison for scandalous videos, posted on Instagram, which contained insults against Muslims and called on “all Armenians,” “athletes, and strong guys” to come to Moscow-City, beat up Chechens and Dagestanis and “take their cards and cash.” He also called for “programming the authorities so that they stop providing for, treating well, and respecting Muslims and Jews,” etc. Another person was convicted for repeatedly displaying tattoos of Nazi swastikas.
• Two individuals were convicted for their statements expressing religious xenophobia: the aforementioned Areg Shchepikhin and Yelena Sulikova (Alyona Polyn), the head of the “Empire of the Strongest Witches” (Imperiia Sil'neyshikh Ved'm). Sulikova was sentenced to two years in a minimum-security penal colony for selling her book My Name is Polyn—found to contain incitement to violence against Orthodox Christians and clergy of the Russian Orthodox Church—between 2020 and 2023, as well as for publishing a video that included statements insulting the religious feelings of believers.
• Seven people were convicted for expressing criticism of the authorities on social media (VKontakte and Telegram).
• 15 people faced sanctions for statements about the armed conflict with Ukraine.
• Three people were convicted for statements that the authorities deemed attacks on traditional Russian values and symbols. They include Sergey Kiselyov from Voronezh, punished for his publications about the Victory Day; Ukrainian citizen Dmitry Alekseenko, convicted in absentia for sending a photo of Nazi collaborator Andrei Vlasov to the Immortal Regiment website in 2021; and Oleg Merzlyakov from Udmurtia, who insulted Orthodoxy during a conflict with a village priest. In our opinion, their sentences are inappropriate.

39 of the 43 defendants were convicted for their online statements, two for their statements made offline, and two for both online and offline speech.

25 people were sentenced to prison terms, seven received suspended sentences, five were sentenced to fines, three to compulsory labor, one to community service, and one to corrective labor. In addition, one defendant was released from criminal liability and referred for compulsory treatment. There was one court acquittal. The verdict was issued in the case of Bryansk activist Sergei Maslov, who criticized Governor Alexander Bogomaz and made disapproving remarks about the activities of the Governor's grandfather during the Great Patriotic War.

In the absence of any circumstances known to us that would have specifically led to prison sentences, 16 people faced such sentences for their public speech in October.

Since the beginning of 2025, we have learned of 488 convictions for public speech against 513 individuals. Of these, 123 sentences against 133 individuals we deem completely or partially inappropriate.

We have information about 27 new criminal cases opened in October against 27 individuals for public speech under the articles of interest to us. Their charges were based on calls for violence against ethnic or religious groups, displays of tattoos with Nazi symbols, and pro-Ukrainian statements.

We recorded 45 court rulings on administrative offenses issued in October under Article 20.3.1 of the Code of Administrative Offenses (CAO) — incitement to hatred or enmity, as well as humiliation of human dignity. The charges were based primarily on various statements on VKontakte, Telegram, and WhatsApp targeting natives of Central Asia or the Caucasus, Roma, Jews, Crimean Tatars, migrants, ethnic Russians, government officials, and even students with disabilities.

We regard 18 rulings as inappropriate. In October, the defendants faced sanctions for some harsh — but entirely nonviolent — statements about government officials, such as police officers, the National Guard (even for using the phrase “call boys”), judges, and investigators, as well as about the political party United Russia and about Putin personally. In one case, a punishment under Article 20.3.1 CAO was imposed for statements about Yermak Timofeevich and his companions in the Russian conquest of Siberia.

Additionally, we would like to highlight the decision of a St. Petersburg court to fine a local resident for a complaint letter against her doctor, which mentioned his family and Crimean Tatar origins. The court stated that “since the complaint was sent to government agencies rather than through private correspondence, it was deemed public.” However, we have doubts about this interpretation of public speech, as the number of people involved in processing the requests and correspondence is unknown.

Only one person was held accountable for offline actions — for shouting anti-Caucasian insults at a neighbor in the lobby of a residential building.

Two people were sentenced to administrative arrest; the others were fined.

In total, since the beginning of the year, we know of 612 decisions imposing punishment under Article 20.3.1 CAO. We consider 134 of them inappropriate.

We know of only two people punished in October under Article 20.29 CAO (production and distribution of extremist materials) for the following materials posted on VKontakte: nasheed Akhi anta Hurrun (“Brother, you are free”) and “Dulles' Plan to Destroy the USSR (Russia)”. We view the latter decision as inappropriate.

Since the beginning of the year, we have learned of 130 cases, in which sanctions were imposed for distributing content from the Federal List of Extremist Materials. We classified 39 of these decisions as inappropriate.

The list itself was updated once in October. On October 28, the song “Roses Perish on Lawns, and Hoodlums in Red Zones” by Mafik (Denis Malygin), which celebrates the AUE subculture, was added to the List.

The List will inevitably continue to grow. For example, in October, the St. Petersburg City Court recognized xenophobic songs by Mikhail Maurov, “Russia Is Not for Russians” and “HOLOCAUST”, extremist. Maurov's name surfaced in August 2024 in a report about the detention of 12 members of the White Color neo-Nazi group; he was named as the founder of a White Color cell in Crimea. In 2021, the Chkalovsky District Court of Yekaterinburg repeatedly punished Maurov under Article 20.3.1 CAO. In 2022, Maurov announced that he had been charged under Article 205 CC (terrorist attack) and immediately fled the country.

AllatRa, recognized as an extremist movement by the Supreme Court's decision of June 24, 2025, was added to the List of Extremist Organizations in October.

In addition, in October, the Supreme Court of Chechnya recognized the NIYSO (translated from Chechen as “equality” and “justice”) as an extremist movement. Founded in August 2022, it describes itself as the “de-occupation movement of Chechnya.”

Sanctions for hate crimes against the person or property are reviewed separately.