We present a book written by Galina Kozhevnikova in collaboration with Alexander Verkhovsky and Eugene Veklerov and published in the beginning of 2008.

"Ultra-Nationalism and Hate Crimes in Contemporary Russia: The 2004-2006 Annual Reports of Moscow's SOVA Center"

With a foreword by Stephen D. Shenfield

(=Soviet and Post-Soviet Politics and Society, vol. 77)

Stuttgart & Hannover: ibidem-Verlag

178 pages. Paperback. 2008

ISBN 978-3-89821-868-9

EUR 24.90 (incl. VAT) plus shipping

This book is a collection of the 2004, 2005 and 2006 annual reports as well as some additional statistics on 2007 compiled by Moscow's SOVA Center for Information and Analysis. The reports are devoted to such issues as political nationalism; hate crimes; the use of police, administrative, political and social tools to counteract xenophobic violence; and the Russian authorities' abuse of laws designed to counteract extremism, i.e. their cynical exploitation of this legislation for their own political purposes. Already in the middle of this decade, all of these problems were known to pose a certain threat to Russian society. In spite of the considerable public attention they received since then, only few effective measures have been taken and, thus, the situation is getting worse: The level of racist violence is increasing further and the spectrum of ultra-nationalist groups is consolidating. Moreover, representatives of the political elite have started to adopt cryptic and, sometimes, overtly xenophobic rhetoric. At the same time, the government's current office holders actively utilize anti-extremist legislation to unlawfully restrict not only ultra-nationalist groups, but also the rights and liberties of other non-governmental and political organizations.

The book can be pre-ordered here and here.