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

We learned of 33 sentences handed down in April against 45 individuals charged with involvement in extremist and terrorist groups and organizations whose activities we monitor. In addition, one person was referred for compulsory psychiatric treatment.

Two defendants were convicted for collaborating with the far-right network NS/WP, two for collaborating with the Russian Volunteer Corps (Russkiy dobrovolcheskiy korpus, RDK) two for collaborating with the Freedom of Russia Legion (Legion “Svoboda Rossii,” LSR), and two others for collaborating with unspecified Ukrainian organizations. Three people were convicted in absentia for their connections to the Telegram channel "Utro Dagestan,” which provoked the pogrom at Makhachkala airport in 2023. Six individuals were sentenced for financing the Artpodgotovka movement. Two sentences were based on charges of involvement in Sergei Taraskin’s “USSR”, and one on involvement in the Citizens of the USSR movement centered in Novokuibyshevsk (Samara Region). At least two individuals were convicted in April for involvement in the AUE criminal subculture.

We classified 12 sentences against 22 individuals as inappropriate. They include five known convictions for donations to the Anti-Corruption Foundation (Fond borby s korruptsiyey, FBK), after it was recognized as an extremist organization, a sentence in absentia issued against an employee of Navalny's team, a sentence against six participants of the Vesna movement, as well as five sentences against 10 Jehovah's Witnesses.

The courts sentenced 27 people to imprisonment, eight individuals faced fines, three were sentenced to compulsory labor, and five were issued suspended sentences.

At least 15 such cases against 26 individuals were newly initiated in April (not counting the AUE-related cases). The suspects included soccer fans from the T.O.Y.S. (The Opposition Young Supporters) association; an ex-KGB investigator who defended “citizens of the USSR”; donors to Artpodgotovka and FBK; members of Jehovah’s Witnesses communities; a leader of a local group of the new religious movement Allya-Ayat; and an administrator of an LGBT dating group on VKontakte who was charged with participation in the “international LGBT social movement”.

In 2026, we learned about 124 total court decisions in such cases against 149 people. Two of them were referred for compulsory psychiatric treatment, and in one case, the court terminated the prosecution due to the defendant’s death. We view 57 sentences against 73 individuals as fully or partially inappropriate.

We have information on 52 sentences against 58 individuals issued in April that involved relevant Criminal Code articles on public speech. Additionally, one person was referred for compulsory psychiatric treatment. We view 13 such sentences against 17 individuals as inappropriate.

These decisions against 59 people can be grouped into the following partly overlapping categories based on the statements’ targets:

• 11 people were convicted for expressing ethnic xenophobia. They were punished for posting Nazi symbols on social media and for making statements targeting Jews (including the aforementioned administrators of the “Utro Dagestan” channel), Poles, and ethnic Russians. One individual was convicted for an offline incident: he shouted xenophobic insults and threats at passersby, including a family with children and a woman wearing a hijab, and threw a bottle at them.
• Three people faced sanctions for statements motivated by religious xenophobia, including calls on VKontakte for violent actions either against non-Muslims or, conversely, against Muslims.
• Seven people faced sanctions for statements that the authorities deemed attacks on traditional Russian values and symbols. A resident of Samara was convicted, among other charges, for an obscene comment about the St. George’s Ribbon, while five defendants in the aforementioned Vesna case were prosecuted for criticizing the way Victory Day was celebrated. German sculptor Jacques Tilly was convicted in absentia, including over a sculpture depicting Patriarch Kirill. We consider all of these charges inappropriate.

• 37 individuals were convicted for statements regarding the armed conflict with Ukraine; we classified the sentences issued to 15 of them as clearly inappropriate.

• Five people were convicted for other statements against the authorities made on social media and in messaging apps.

Two people faced sanctions for their offline statements, two for both offline and online statements, and the rest for online statements only.

44 defendants were sentenced to imprisonment, one received a suspended sentence, five were sentenced to fines, two to compulsory labor, one to corrective labor, and one individual was referred for compulsory treatment.

For 29 people sentenced to imprisonment for public speech in April, we are not aware of any specific circumstances that would have led to such sentences.

Since the beginning of 2026, we have learned of 179 court decisions related to public speech against 190 individuals. Of these, one defendant was acquitted, three were referred for compulsory treatment, and the rest faced some form of punishment. We classified 45 court decisions against 49 individuals as completely or partially inappropriate.

We have information on 34 new criminal cases related to public speech, opened in April against 34 individuals under the articles of interest to us.

In April, we recorded 28 rulings on administrative offenses issued by courts under Article 20.3.1 of the Code of Administrative Offenses (incitement to hatred or enmity, as well as humiliation of human dignity). These rulings involved xenophobic statements posted on VKontakte, Telegram, and MAX and directed against migrants from the Caucasus and Central Asia, Roma, Black people, Ukrainians, Russians, Muslims, as well as healthcare workers.

We view five decisions to impose punishment as clearly inappropriate. Four cases involve harsh language directed at law enforcement officers, and in the fifth case, such language was directed at the President of Russia.

Four people were sentenced to community service, two to administrative arrests, and the rest to fines (however, only one of the inappropriately punished individuals was fined).

Since the beginning of the year, we have recorded about 264 court decisions issued under Article 20.3.1 CAO. We classified 34 of them as inappropriate, and the court dismissed one case for lack of elements of the offense.

Sanctions under Article 20.29 CAO (mass distribution of extremist materials) were imposed in at least three cases in April. A minor was fined twice in the Kemerovo Region — for posting a photo of Hitler and a certain song included on the Federal List of Extremist Materials. In Moscow, the owner of a tutoring center was fined for publishing The Fortress of a Muslim, a popular Islamic book that contains no aggressive calls. In total, we have learned of 25 cases of penalties imposed under Article 20.29 CAO since the beginning of the year, nine of which we consider inappropriate.

The Federal List of Extremist Materials was updated three times (on April 10, 15, and 17) to include Nos. 5495–5498 as follows:

• “Call of Blood, ” a xenophobic song by Russky Korpus;

• the Russian-language edition of The March of Nationalism, a manifesto by the German "conservative revolution" writer Friedrich Georg Jünger, first published in 1926;

• the encyclopedic dictionary Islam in the North Caucasus (we consider this ban inappropriate);

• Mikhail Khodorkovsky's book How Do You Slay a Dragon? A Manual for Aspiring Revolutionaries.

Three organizations were added to the Federal List of Extremist Organizations in April, including two far-right organizations. One of them, designated on the list as “the community organized by Aleksandr Nikolayevich Nusser,” is a far-right group from Krasnoyarsk; a member of this community was convicted in February 2026. The other is listed as “the community known as the ‘Natsdem’ community, consisting of Georgy Sergeyevich Paramoshin, Kirill Andreyevich Nikulenkov, Sergey Sergeyevich Litvinov, and Mikhail Antonovich Noskov.” This refers to the administrators of the Telegram channel Natsdem, who were convicted in October 2025.

In addition, the list was expanded to include an “association” consisting of Nikolai and Denis Shtengelov, the founders of the KDV Group holding company, which produces snacks under the popular brands Yashkino, Kirieshki, and Babkiny Semechki, and owns the Yarche! supermarket chain. Nikolai Shtengelov was allegedly involved in organizing the Ukrainian territorial defense battalion Kyevan Rus, while his son Denis allegedly supplied food to the Ukrainian armed forces.

The Russian Antiwar Committee (UK) and its subdivisions was added to the list of terrorist organizations in April. The organization was banned by the Supreme Court of Russia on March 2, 2026.

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