December 2008. Preliminary Annual Result

In December 2008, in Russia, not less than 8 people (including 2 fatalities) became victims of racist and xenophobic violence. As before, we believe this considerable decrease of the number of victims to be due to underreporting (in the same period of time, in 2007, 11 people were murdered and 39 were injured). In December, attacks were reported in Moscow, Novosibirsk, Volgograd and Belgorod.

According to preliminary data which is sure to grow in time, in all, in 2008, not less than 87 people were murdered and 378 were injured as a result of hate motivated violence. In 2007, there were 86 murdered and 599 injured people registered. Beside Moscow (51 murdered and 175 injured people) and St. Petersburg (15 murdered and 37 injured people), the cases were registered in 39 more Russian regions. As usual, the Northern Caucasus regions are excluded from the statistics. Beside the two capital cities, the following towns are centers of racist violence: Yekaterinburg (4 murdered and 15 injured people), Voronezh (2 murdered and 17 injured people), Nizhny Novgorod (2 murdered and 13 injured people), and formerly calm Penza (14 injured people).

In December, not less than 5 guilty verdicts against 15 people were issued for violent hate crimes in Russia (2 in Moscow and one in each of the other 3 cities: St. Petersburg, Yekaterunburg and Lipetsk).

In all, in 2008, there were not less than 30 guilty verdicts for violent hate crimes. 105 people were convicted (including 29 who got suspended sentences).

In December, there were 3 verdicts against 5 people for hate propaganda (in Moscow, Penza and Petrozavodsk).

In all, in 2008, not less than 41 verdicts were issued for hate propaganda. 55 people were sentenced, including 20 of them who got suspended sentences or were released from penalty for various reasons.

In December, the Federal List of Extremist Materials was enlarged two times. By the end of 2008, there are 301 entries in it (de facto, 292 titles).