The following is our monthly review of instances of xenophobia and radical nationalism, along with any government countermeasures, for July 2024.
In July 2024, we learned that 13 people had fallen victim to hate-motivated attacks. We learned of most of the incidents from far-right Telegram channels, which posted videos of brutal attacks on people of Central Asian, Caucasian and of "non-Slavic" appearance, unhoused people, or other people considered by the far-right to "disgrace the white race." In total, we have recorded 155 victims of hate attacks in 2024.
A notable event of the month was a July 22 march through the streets of Korenovsk, Krasnodar Krai, where participants shouted slogans including "Russians forward," "One for all and all for one," and "No retreat and no surrender." Many participating in the march wore clothing with symbols of various nationalist organizations. Nationalists later reported that about 500 people took part in the march, which by our count seems greatly exaggerated; official media reported 60 participants. According to one video, there were about one hundred and fifty. The reason for the action was a conflict between two groups, one of which included representatives of the nationalist organizations "Russian Community" and "Northern Man", and the other – young people of "non-Slavic appearance" (nationalist channels reported that they were Kurds).
We became aware of only one act of xenophobic vandalism committed in July. In Tyumen, unknown individuals threw pig remains onto the porch of a mosque and poured red liquid onto the area. A video of this incident was distributed online, according to the Investigative Committee, accompanied by a "nationalist song with appeals to extremism." In addition, in the Rostov Region in June and July, teenagers burned icons against the backdrop of the swastika and posted videos on Telegram. In total, since the beginning of 2024, we have learned of 12 acts of xenophobic vandalism.
Public nationalist activity in July continued in its traditional forms.
The "Movement of Nationalists" and members of the "Russian Information Network" held agitation raids, pasting stickers "against political repression, for the abolition of the anti-Russian Article 282" in the Moscow Region, Novosibirsk, Pskov and Khabarovsk.
The Russian Community (RO) and Northern Man continued their raids on migrants’ places of work and residence in Maloyaroslavets in the Kaluga Region, several cities in the Moscow Region and Yekaterinburg, Ryazan, Samara, Surgut, Saratov, Cheboksary, Chelyabinsk and several other regions.
The initiative of Primorsky Krai Governor Oleg Kozhemyako, who announced the creation of a detachment of veterans of the special military operation in Ukraine to "ensure security and order," including to "put newcomers in their place," aroused great enthusiasm in the ranks of the far right. The detachment included 300 soldiers from the Tiger volunteer detachment. Since July 25, the detachment, together with police officers and the Russian National Guard, have been patrolling the streets. The news, with a call to join Tiger, was immediately distributed in far-right Telegram channels.
The speech of a lieutenant colonel from the Ministry of the Interior, delivered at a meeting of the department's board on the topic of migration with the participation of the head of the Dolgoprudny urban district, caused even greater noise in the far-right community. The lieutenant colonel stated that Moscow Region police had been tasked with "whitening" the region so that it would not be "blackened" by foreigners. Some of the ultra-rightists suggested in their media to not stop at the Moscow Region, but to "whiten all of Russia."
Over the course of the month, the ultra-right in various cities sought to ban concerts of emo musician Maxim Fisenko, who performs under the pseudonym Kishlak. On July 4, in Omsk, a group of ultra-right activists disrupted Kishlak's concert at the Viking bar. Ultra-right assailants entered the dressing room before the concert and pepper-sprayed the musician, which injured the performer himself, the concert manager, and visitors to the event, including minors. In the ensuing rush, the attackers beat up several more people. According to bar employees, the attack was attended by the director of local private security company Irtysh, Viktor Bogachev, who posts photos of himself on Instagram in a T-shirt from the ultra-right brand Rusich with the inscription "No death for us," memorial posts about Maxim (Tesak) Martsinkevich, prints with the neo-pagan activist Dobroslav, ultra-right symbols, and photos of himself against the backdrop of the Russian imperial flag.
In Samara, Kishlak's July 24 and 25 concerts were canceled after an appeal by the "cyber squad" of the Russian Community. In Kazan, his concert on July 26 was also canceled for the same reason. The ultra-right was also outraged by Kishlak's performance on July 13–14 at the VK FEST in Moscow; on the eve of the concert, the Russian Community and some other organizations issued a statement against the concert of a "promoter of drug addiction, LGBT and suicide."
In addition to the Russian Community, the Orthodox movement Forty Forties was also involved in writing complaints demanding a ban on musical performances. It appealed to the Moscow prosecutor's office demanding that a July 17 concert by Alexei Kortnev be canceled.
It was not only musical performers who caused outrage among nationalists. "Call of the People" filed a complaint against the screening of Alexander Arkhangelsky's film Rodina about Hieromonk Ioann (Giovanni Guaita) at the Yeltsin Center in Yekaterinburg. The complainants called the film a "provocation" against Orthodox Christianity, emphasizing that the screening was planned to coincide with the Tsar's Days (a local religious festival in memory of the murder of the family of Emperor Nicholas II).
No convictions on the basis of hate-motivated crimes were reported in July.
We are aware that six people were convicted of xenophobic violence, in two cases, in July.
Since the beginning of the year, we have learned of 11 convictions for xenophobic violence against 27 people and five convictions for xenophobic vandalism against as many people.
We know of 12 sentences [Here and below we present data without taking into account court decisions that we consider to be patently improper] for aggressive public statements, issued in June against 12 people.
They include:
— Five people convicted under Article 280 of the Criminal Code (CC) (public calls for extremist activity). The sentences were mainly related to comments on social networks (in all known cases, on VKontakte) with calls for violent actions against people from the Caucasus and Central Asia, military personnel, members of parliament, and officials.
— Two people convicted under Article 205.2 CC (public calls for terrorist activity or justification of the same) for comments on social networks approving the activities of Chechen armed groups that fought in the North Caucasus from 1994 to 2006, and Afghan mujahideen who fought against Soviet troops in Afghanistan in 1979–1989.
— One person convicted under both articles together for posting statements on social networks calling for “violent actions against representatives of state authorities, as well as employees of law enforcement agencies.”
— One person, Andrei Razin (Chibis, Chinarik) – the 46-year-old leader of the neo-Nazi gang White Scouts – convicted under Part 1 of Article 282.4 of the Criminal Code (repeated propaganda or public display of Nazi symbols) for posting his own photos on the White Scouts Telegram channel, in which his tattoos were visible. Previously, he was fined under Article 20.3 of the Code of Administrative Offenses (CAO) for a similar act.
Five of the 12 people were sentenced to imprisonment, four to suspended sentences, two to fines, and one to community service.
Among those sentenced to imprisonment there were two Ukrainian activists convicted in absentia and three Russian citizens. The latter had other convictions, for example, the aforementioned leader of the neo-Nazi gang White Scouts was under police surveillance and had previously been repeatedly brought to administrative and criminal liability, including for violent crimes.
This year to date, we have recorded 146 convictions for aggressive public statements against 159 people.
In July, information emerged about 15 new criminal cases brought against 15 people for public statements.
We learned of four sentences against four people for participating in the activities of the banned Citizens of the USSR, A.U.E. and the Ukrainian Right Sector, as well as three new criminal cases for participating in the activities of the banned Freedom of Russia Legion.
Since the beginning of this year, we have become aware of 39 convictions, against 64 people, for participation in extremist and terrorist communities and organizations.
We have information about four people fined in July under Article 20.29 CAO (production and distribution of extremist materials) for publishing popular ultra-right materials on VKontakte: songs by the group RagnaROCK – Rage, N.N.N., Kill the Enemy Within Yourself; the film Romper Stomper, and an image of Adolf Hitler. Since the beginning of the year, we have learned of 71 people fined for distributing xenophobic materials listed in the Federal List of Extremist Materials.
We also learned of 23 people punished in July under Article 20.3 CAO for publicly displaying prohibited Nazi symbols or symbols of prohibited nationalist organizations. Some were held accountable for publishing materials with Nazi symbols and symbols of Ukrainian organizations on VKontakte and Telegram. Fifteen people were sanctioned for offline actions: one drew a swastika on a bus stop, another shouted the slogan "Sieg Heil" and threw a fascist salute on the street. Eleven people (two of them, colony inmates) were punished for displaying their own Nazi tattoos. Seven of the 23 were sentenced to administrative arrest, and the rest were fined. In total, since the beginning of the year, we have learned of 419 punishments for such offenses.
Since the beginning of the year, we have learned of 218 court decisions made under Article 20.3.1 CAO (incitement to hatred) for aggressive statements. We have information about 13 people punished under this article in July. All of them were sanctioned for publishing xenophobic statements on VKontakte, or mass messaging on Telegram, with content against people from Central Asia, natives of the Caucasus, Roma, Russians, Jews, Americans, Muslims, Christians, police officers, and LGBT people. Two were sentenced to administrative arrest, the rest were fined.
Among those punished in July was the well-known Perm activist Roman Yushkov. The court sentenced him to five days of administrative arrest for posting a video to VKontakte with negative statements about Roma people, as well as "a group of people based on sexual orientation." Previously, Yushkov had been repeatedly brought to criminal and administrative responsibility.
The Federal List of Extremist Materials was updated twice during the month – on July 1 and 23, to account for new entries 5428–5436. These included literature of the Satanist and neo-Nazi sect Order of Nine Angles (ONA, O9A); a book by Anastasia Novykh entitled Sensei-IV. Native of Shambhala published by the international movement Allatra based in Ukraine; the Ukrainian song "Rusnya" and two incomprehensible audio files "in a foreign language" designated as “mshdrgpmw 1571158516081575158116061575 1608 158316051575157216061575 1608 160616011608158716061575” and “mshdrgpmw 157515841575 1 601157815811578.”
In July, the International Public Movement for the Destruction of Multinational Unity and Territorial Integrity of Russia "Anti-Russian Separatist Movement" and 55 of its structural divisions were added to the Federal List of Extremist Organizations, under item 109. Among them are the Free Russia Foundation, previously recognized as an "undesirable organization," the League of Free Nations, the Asians of Russia Foundation, the Center for Human Rights of Ichkeria, the International Committee of Indigenous Peoples of Russia and other groups and associations advocating for both independent status and the expansion of rights for various regions of Russia.
