The following is our monthly review of instances of xenophobia and radical nationalism, along with any government countermeasures, for January 2023.
At the moment, we have not recorded any information regarding hate crimes committed in Russia during January 2023.
We would only note news that appeared in Volgograd media about an attack by the far-right “Russian Corps” on local socialists. However, we do not know how reliable the information is, which leftists were targeted, and whether anyone was actually injured.
Aside from that, we also are aware of threats, including racist threats, against a dancer from Nigeria after a video of him dancing at a private event in Yakutia appeared on social networks. After receiving the threats, this person left Yakutia.
On January 7, Little Big frontman Ilya Prusikin posted a video in which he rides on a cross-shaped skateboard, while wearing a collar reminiscent of those worn by Western priests. The video caused outrage among a number of nationalists. In his Telegram channel, Vladislav Pozdnyakov (of Male State) called on his associates to denounce Prusikin en masse and in writing to the Ministry of Internal Affairs, demanding that he be held accountable “for desecrating an Orthodox cross on Christmas Eve,” that is an insult to the feelings of believers. On January 9, the St. Petersburg branch of the Call of the People movement, as well as the and representatives of the Forty Forties movement, sent applications to the Investigative Committee, stating that Prusikin's actions were blasphemous and were subject to Article 148 of the Criminal Code (CC). Call of the People also demanded the initiation of a case on the basis of hooliganism motivated by religious hatred (under Part 1 of Article 213 of the Criminal Code). Meanwhile, the Tsargrad Society also expressed their indignation at Prusikin's act. As far as we are aware, no case was opened, but on January 27, Prusikin was included in Russia’s register of "foreign agents."
We are aware of two convictions handed down in January for violent crimes (*) that included a hate motive. In Saratov, a court convicted seven ultra-right activists on charges including xenophobically motivated street attacks. One of the three adult members of the group was sentenced to two and a half years in a penal colony, another to 10 months in a minimum-security penal colony, and another to 10 months in a colony for young offenders. The punishments given to two juvenile defendants were not made public by the Investigative Committee’s press service. In Bashkortostan, three members of Bashkort, which is recognized as an extremist organization, received suspended sentences for attempting to stage an attack on Armenians in the village of Karmaskaly.
In January, we recorded eight separate court rulings against 14 individuals in connection with xenophobic statements.
Two of those convicted had been charged under Article 280 CC (public calls to extremist activity) for social media posts, as well as messages in Discord, calling for attacks on law enforcement employees and “the Indigenous population of Russia.”
Another two people – the infamous ex-Schema-Hegumen (**) Sergius (Nikolai Romanov) and his assistant Vsevolod Moguchev – were convicted in Moscow under paragraph “c” of Article 282 Part 2 CC (incitement of hatred and enmity by an organized group) and sentenced to prison time for the distribution of a video that “incited hatred of Jews, Catholics and Muslims.”
In a verdict of six out of seven ultra-right activists from Saratov mentioned above, in addition to other articles, the court considered Article 280 and Part 2 of Article 282 CC. The reason was stated to be some public statements – most likely videos showing the scenes of the defendants’ attacks.
One person was convicted on a combined charge of Article 354.1 (rehabilitation of Nazism) with Article 280 CC over the online posting of materials approving of the mass extermination of Jews in the years of the Second World War. Another individual was convicted under Article 205.2 CC (public propaganda of terrorism) because of social media posts calling for acts of Islamist terrorism. Another two people were convicted under a combined charge of Article 280 with Article 205.2 over social media posting of calls to attack Jews and law enforcement employees.
Neither the Federal List of Extremist Materials nor the Federal List of Extremist Organizations was updated in January 2023.
On January 16, the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation deemed the movement “Maniacs of the Cult of Murder” (MKU), which professes a misanthropic ideology, as a terrorist organization. MKU has not yet been entered into the register of terrorist organizations. The group was alleged to be connected with multiple arrests and detentions in the years 2021–22.
Meanwhile, we are aware of three individuals who were fined under Article 20.29 of the Code of Administrative Offenses (CAO) (production and distribution of extremist materials) over social media re-posts featuring materials included in the Federal List of Extremist Materials. These included, for example, the song “Don’t Buy from Darkies” by the group Sekira Peruna (i.e. “Perun’s Axe”).
No fewer than 11 individuals were sanctioned under Article 20.3 CAO (propaganda and demonstration of Nazi symbols and symbols of banned organizations). All of them shared Nazi symbols or symbols of organizations like ISIL on social media. In the main, these were to the Russian-language network VKontakte. One individual was punished for sending an email to the district court, addressed to a justice of the peace, featuring a symbol of the Volunteer Movement of the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists. Four people were sentenced to administrative arrests for terms ranging from four to fifteen days, while the others were fined.
An additional four individuals were sanctioned under Art. 20.3.1 of the Administrative Code (incitement to hatred) over the social media publication of a range of xenophobic and racist materials. These included several aimed at natives of the Caucasus. One person spent a night in administrative arrest, while the other three were fined.
On January 19, cities across Russia marked the traditional day commemorating the lawyer Stanislav Markelov and the journalist Anastasia Baburova, who were killed by neo-Nazis in 2009. At the place of their murder, on Prechistenka Street in the center of Moscow, activists set up a temporary memorial: those gathered laid flowers and lit candles. The event went into the evening without any demonstration of symbols of political parties or organizations, or posters or banners in general. During the day, representatives of the Yabloko party laid flowers at the site. In the evening, three people from the nationalist group S.E.R.B. showed up to the memorial. These included group leader Gosha Tarasevich (real name Igor Beketov), as well as Igor Brumel, who has participated in many S.E.R.B. actions. They attempted to provoke those gathered, noting that Yevgeniya Khasis, who was one of two people convicted of the murder, “didn’t kill anyone” and that now “Markelov and Baburova would be somewhere in Kazakhstan or Lithuania, opposing Russia.” Practically no one among those gathered to mourn reacted to the provocation.
On January 17, ahead of the action, a memorial event was held in Moscow. Historian-activists Pyotr Ryabov and Vlad Tupikin lectured on the lives of Markelov and Baburova.
In St. Petersburg, those gathered laid flowers at the Solovetsky Stone (the monument to victims of political repression). About ten people came to the memorial, including legislative assembly deputy Boris Vishnevsky of the Yabloko party.
In Yekaterinburg, participants in the action laid flowers and placed a sign with the names of murdered anti-fascists, under graffiti with a press badge on barbed wire near the Press House on Turgenev Street. The graffiti was created in 2019 by street artist a11c1ear from Revda (Sverdlovsk Region) and is dedicated to repression of journalists, and specifically the case of Ivan Golunov. A day later, unknown attackers destroyed the graffiti and painted over the press badge, leaving only barbed wire. However, on January 21, activists brought new flowers and a sign and placed them under the wire. January 19 memorial events were also held in Vilnius, Berlin, Stockholm, Paris, Tbilisi, Batumi and Yerevan.
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(*) Data about criminal and administrative cases are reported without reference to rulings that we consider to be patently improper, but including those in respect of which we have insufficient information or which we consider controversial.
(**) A schema-hegumen is the head of a monastery in Russian Orthodox Christianity, similar to an abbot in the Western tradition, who has reached the final stage of monasticism, called the Great Schema.
