2008

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The Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism (RISJ) published a study on the question of how opposition politics and independent initiatives are failing on the internet in Russia.

In September 2008, not less than 22 people were injured and 5 people died as a result of racially and neo-nazi motivated violence (in September 2007, there were 19 injured and 5 killed). Thus, we observe a slight increase of the number of victims in comparison to the previous year. Beside Moscow, there were attacks reported in Arkhangelsk, Voronezh, Yekaterinburg, Izhevsk, Kaluga region, Nizhny Novgorod and Samara. Notably, in St. Petersburg, after Governor Matvienko had claimed the decrease of hate crimes, and :Novaya Gazeta; had received a warning for an indignant article about anti-Georgian declaration of the Movement Against Illegal Immigration, not a single hate crime was reported.

On September 25, 2008, Human Rights First released 2008 Hate Crime Survey, a second annual report examining bias-driven violence in 2007 and 2008.

The Movement Against Illegal Immigration (DPNI) has agreed to collaborate with the German National Democratic Party (NDP) and stated its intention to organize an international conference of nationalistic organizations in Moscow this winter. :We see the NDP as our most reliable ally in Germany. The vision of a future international coalition is clear in my mind;, said the leader of the DPNI, Alexander Belov. The declaration was made one day after the DPNI "Unifying' Congress on September 13 organized by one of the organization's factions, to which the Belov group was not invited. One of the main reasons, in fact, for the seemingly irreconcilable conflict in the organization is indeed Belov's declared ideology of a European-style nationalism.

On September 13, 2008, the "Unifying' Congress of the DPNI took place in Russia's capital. It was prepared by the Moscow faction of the organization, led by Alexander Mikhailov, with the stated purpose to heal the rifts in the organization existent since May this year.

On September 8, 2008, the Basman Interregional Prosecutor's Office for the city of Moscow issued a warning concerning extremist activities to the television station :2x2.; The warning was in regard to an episode of the cartoon "South Park' which aired January 9, 2008.

In August 2008, not less than 25 people, including 5 dead, became victims of racially and neo-Nazi motivated violence (in August 2007, 6 people died and not less than 66 were injured). Apart from Moscow and St. Petersburg, such attacks were registered in Perm, Tula, Uljyanovsk and Chelyabinsk.

On the night of July 31, in the Begunitsy village in the Leningrad region, seven Chinese workers were beaten and robbed.

On August 20, 2008, Oleg Sym, a Russian national of Korean origin and student of the Tula State University, was beaten.