We are publishing a review of anti-extremist enforcement in January 2026 as it applies to public speech, organized activity, and attacks on physical objects unrelated to xenophobia.

We have learned of 18 sentences issued in January against 21 individuals on charges of involvement in extremist and terrorist groups and organizations whose activities we monitor. Three individuals were found guilty of collaborating with Russian Volunteer Corps (Russkiy dobrovolcheskiy korpus, RDK) and three more – with the Freedom of Russia Legion (Legion “Svoboda Rossii,” LSR); both designated as terrorist organizations in Russia. One individual was convicted of financing the Artpodgotovka movement. At least two people were sentenced for their involvement with the AUE criminal subculture, banned as an extremist organization, and two others were convicted of involvement in the Columbine subculture, banned as a terrorist organization.

We consider seven sentences against nine individuals inappropriate. Four of these sentences against six individuals involved charges of continuing the work of banned Jehovah's Witness communities. According to our information, at least three individuals were convicted of donating to the Anti-Corruption Foundation (FBK) after it was designated as extremist.

The courts sentenced 13 people to imprisonment. Four people received suspended sentences, and four more faced fines.

We have learned that at least five new cases against six individuals were opened in January. The defendants faced charges of involvement in Columbine, financing Artpodgotovka, and financing the FBK. Furthermore, three Jehovah's Witnesses have reportedly become new defendants in a criminal case opened back in September 2025.

We have information on 20 sentences against 20 individuals issued in January under the relevant Criminal Code articles on public speech. One additional person was referred for compulsory psychiatric treatment, and one was acquitted. We classified five of the sentences as inappropriate.

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

• Four people were convicted for expressing ethnic xenophobia: posting xenophobic statements on social media or approving of the actions of Nazi criminals during World War II.
• Eleven people were sentenced for statements regarding the armed conflict with Ukraine; for three of them, we consider the sentences clearly inappropriate.
• Two individuals faced sanctions for statements that the authorities viewed as disparaging the Soviet Union's actions during World War II or on Russia's symbols of military glory. In the first case, a resident of Udmurtia was sentenced for a comment mentioning an allegation that SMERSH had been involved in provocations against Ukrainian nationalists. The second offender, a resident of the Ulyanovsk Region, posted an image on social media claiming that collaborators during World War II had used the St. George ribbon. Both were sentenced to compulsory labor, and we consider both sentences inappropriate.
• Three people were sentenced for other statements on messaging platforms or social media directed against the authorities in one way or another.
• One person faced sanctions for an internet post about school shooting.

17 defendants were convicted for their online statements, and two – for statements made offline.

13 defendants were sentenced to imprisonment, two to compulsory labor, and three received suspended sentences.

For 9 people sentenced to imprisonment for public speech in January, we are not aware of any specific circumstances that would have led to such sentences.

We have information about 17 new criminal cases opened in January against 17 people for public speech under the articles of interest to us.

In January, we learned of two criminal cases opened under the articles of interest to us concerning attacks on physical objects, committed, as far as we can tell, not on the grounds of national or religious hatred. One case involved a basket of flowers burned on the Eternal Flame in the Sverdlovsk Region. The other one involved graffiti in Kemerovo that contained unspecified calls for terrorist activity.

In January, we recorded 29 rulings on administrative offenses issued by courts under Article 20.3.1 of the Code of Administrative Offenses (CAO) for incitement to hatred or enmity, as well as humiliation of human dignity. These primarily involved xenophobic statements posted on VKontakte and Telegram targeting migrants, natives of Central Asia (including Kyrgyz and Kazakhs), as well as Bashkirs, Tatars, Russians, and non-Russians in general. One case concerned certain publications that, according to an expert, contained elements of propaganda promoting the “superiority of Judaism” and asserting the inferiority of believers who follow Catholicism, Islam, Christianity, and even the ancient Roman and Egyptian religions (we were unable to determine which specific publication was involved).

Two people faced punishment for their offline actions: xenophobic graffiti on a building's facade and xenophobic insults directed at students during a school lesson. The most recent incident, in which a math teacher on the khutor of Lenin in Krasnodar Krai used xenophobic insults (including the phrase “Russian pigs”) during a lesson, received widespread mass media and social media coverage. After parents filed a collective complaint with the school principal, the teacher was fired. A court in Krasnodar fined him 20,000 rubles.

In at least three cases, we consider the penalties inappropriate. One resident of the Kemerovo Region was fined for a rude comment about the police, and another one – for suggesting that deputies be “swept out with a dirty broom.” In the Moscow Region, comedian Alexander Gudkov was fined for his 2022 music video “I'm Narrow” (Ya uzkiy) – a parody of the “I'm Russian” (Ya russkiy) music video by Shaman.

In 25 of the decisions we recorded, the courts imposed a fine. One person was arrested, and two were sentenced to community service.

In January, two reports were filed under the new Article 13.53 CAO (knowingly seeking extremist materials and accessing them). One of them resulted in a fine for a 16-year-old teenager from the Kemerovo Region.

The Federal List of Extremist Materials was updated once in January: on January 22, adding two more songs by Mikhail Maurov, “Russia Is Not for Russians” and “HOLOCAUST.” Law enforcement agencies believe that Maurov was a founder of a cell of the neo-Nazi network Belaya Mast (White Color, or White Suit) in Crimea, as was reported when the cell's members were detained. Both Maurov personally and the Belaya Mast Telegram channel deny this.

In January, Niyso Popular Movement was added to the Federal List of Extremist Organizations (“Niyso” means equality and justice in Chechen). It was designated as extremist by the Supreme Court of the Chechen Republic on October 30, 2025. The organization, founded in August 2022, calls itself the “de-occupation movement of Chechnya.” Local television, in turn, claimed that the movement “consists of criminals with the blood of residents of the Chechen Republic on their hands” and that one of its members had been involved in an armed attack on police officers in 2024.

Congress of People's Deputies (Kongres Deputowanych Ludowych), a Poland-based organization of Russian political exiles, was added to the Federal List of Organizations Designated as Terrorist by Russian courts. The Russian Supreme Court banned it on December 8, 2025. The court ruled that the organization’s goals were “aimed at promoting, justifying, and supporting terrorism.” The Supreme Court's press release noted that Congress of People's Deputies was led by Ilya Ponomarev and Andrei Sidelnikov, who were convicted under Article 205.2 CC (incitement to terrorism) and who, according to the court, were involved in organizing and preparing other extremist and terrorist crimes. Meanwhile, the Congress split in 2024, with Sidelnikov joining a structure opposed to Ponomarev, which later became the basis of the Coalition of Democratic Forces.

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