The following is our monthly review of instances of xenophobia and radical nationalism, along with any government countermeasures, for August 2024.

In August 2024, we learned of 11 people seriously injured in hate-motivated attacks. Information with respect to most of these attacks continued to be posted to far-right Telegram channels, including videos of violent attacks on Central Asian migrants, people of “non-Slavic appearance,” LGBT people, homeless people and others people the far right considered “disgracing the white race.”

Military action inevitably affects the situation with hate crimes. On the night of August 10, a resident of St. Petersburg shot a neighbor in the eye with a gas pistol through the peephole of her front door, believing that she was from Ukraine (in fact, she was a native of St. Petersburg).

In total, we have learned of 162 victims of hate-motivated attacks so far in 2024.

We did not become aware of any acts of xenophobic vandalism committed in August. In total, we have recorded reports of 17 such acts since the beginning of 2024.

From August 15 to 21, the Movement of Nationalistsand the Russian Liberation Front “Pamyat” held the traditional "Days of Heroes" event, dedicated to the anniversary of the Tambov Rebellion (a peasant uprising against the Bolshevik government during the Russian Civil War). In Moscow and St. Petersburg, improvised memorials were put up, featuring portraits of the heroes of the White movement. Flowers were laid in Moscow and St. Petersburg (as well as the Moscow and Leningrad regions), twelve other regions of Russia, as well as in Lithuania, Argentina and Kazakhstan.

The “Northern Man” movement continued to patrol the streets of Moscow; the “Russian Community” did not lag far behind. In August, the latter continued its raid activity on the places of work and residence of migrants in Moscow, several cities in the Moscow Region, St. Petersburg and Kolpino in the Leningrad Region, as well as in Yekaterinburg, Maloyaroslavets, Novosibirsk, Pervouralsk, Samara, Saratov, Surgut, Nevinnomyssk, Chelyabinsk and Kopeysk in the Chelyabinsk Region.

The "Russian Community" in St. Petersburg actively fought for the cancellation of the concert of rapper Hood Rich Luka (real name Luka Kharaishvili), which was planned for August 9 at the Factory club. The community members especially emphasized the fact that the rapper moved to Moscow from Georgia, and in his work "regularly allows Russophobic statements." The "Russian Community" promised to "talk" with him personally, but the meeting did not take place, and the concert was canceled.

The police have finally begun to pay attention to the vigilante activities of the “Russian Community”; confrontation with the self-proclaimed vigilantes has been carried out with varying success so far. On August 19 in St. Petersburg, police detained members of the organization who had come to “talk to” migrant taxi drivers, who, as they claimed, had entered into a conflict with local taxi drivers. The Investigative Committee opened a criminal case against the police officers who carried out the arrest for abuse of office, but the prosecutor's office overturned the decision to open the case a day later. The Investigative Committee opened a case again, adding forgery to abuse of office, but the prosecutor's office overturned the decision again.

We know of only one sentence in August, issued against five people, for a hate-motivated crime. In the Krasnodar Territory, five participants in mass riots at the Makhachkala airport were sentenced to various terms of imprisonment under Part 2 of Article 212 of the Criminal Code (participation in mass riots committed with a motive of hatred) and Part 1 of Article 318 of the Criminal Code (use of violence against a government official). We note that on October 28 and 29, 2023, a series of anti-Semitic protests took place in the North Caucasus. In addition to the riots at the airport, an anti-Israeli rally was held in Makhachkala; an action demanding that Jews be expelled from the region was held in Cherkessk; Israelis were banned from staying in a hotel in Khasavyurt after a “people’s gathering” at the hotel; and a Jewish cultural center was set on fire in Nalchik.

It is also worth noting the sentence of the Vyborg District Court of St. Petersburg, handed down for an attack on a 17-year-old passerby. Two attackers stopped the young man with the question “Are you for the Russian world?” and without waiting for an answer, declared that they were “skinheads” and “keep everyone here in fear,” after which they began to hit him with a stun gun, sprayed gas in his face and shot him with a flare gun. We note that the hate motive was not included in the charges.

We know that at least one case of xenophobic violence was opened against five people, along with one case of xenophobic vandalism, in August.

Since the beginning of this year, we have recorded 12 convictions for xenophobic violence against 32 people, and six convictions for xenophobic vandalism against six people.

We have information about eight sentences for aggressive public statements handed down in August, against 11 people. They include:

— Two people convicted under Article 280 of the Criminal Code (CC) (public calls for extremist activity) for publishing texts on social networks calling for violent actions against migrants from Central Asia.

— Two members of the Katiba Tawhid wal-Jihad organization were convicted under Article 205.2 CC (public calls for terrorist activity or justification of such) for statements on social networks approving “jihad.”

— Three people were convicted under Part 1 of Article 282.4 CC (repeated propaganda or public display of Nazi symbols). One of them, a prisoner, was punished for displaying his own tattoo with Nazi symbols, and two others were punished for repeatedly publishing Nazi symbols on social networks.

Six of the 11 people were sentenced to imprisonment, three to suspended sentences, one to a fine, and one to community service.

A Ukrainian activist convicted in absentia and five Russian citizens who had other convictions or were already in prison were sentenced to imprisonment.

In total, since the beginning of the year, we have learned of 165 sentences for aggressive public statements, convicting some 241 people.

In August, we also recorded information about 15 new criminal cases brought against 18 people on the basis of public statements.

Further, we learned about nine sentences against 11 people for participation in the activities of the banned organizations Citizens of the USSR, “Prisoners’ Criminal Unity” (AUE), the Freedom of Russia legion and the Islamist Katiba Tawhid wal-Jihad.

We recorded five new criminal cases opened in August against 12 people for participating in the activities of ultra-right groups: “White Suit” and “Paragraph 88,” as well as the banned organization Citizens of the USSR and various Ukrainian organizations.

In particular, on August 9, new criminal cases were opened against five leaders and ideologists of the “White Suit” group – Mark Filippov, Veronika Korolyova, Nikolai Korolyov, Artyom Tseppa, as well as the former deputy head of the department of the Research Institute of Military History of the Military Academy of the General Staff, Lieutenant Colonel Alexei Belkov. They are accused under Article 205.4 (organization of a terrorist community) and Article 282 CC (incitement of national hatred) and several others. Some of the defendants in this case are already in prison.

At the end of August 2024, the resources of the neo-Nazi Ukrainian group K.B.S. (Kultbelogosprotivu, or Cult of White Resistance) reported the detention of six members of the organization's “Russian cell” in Russia and the suspension of its activities. Five videos of teenagers attacking passersby were published on behalf of K.B.S. Russia, with at least one of them taking place in Moscow. The “Russian cell’s” Telegram channel appeared at the end of June of this year, i.e. it existed for about two months.

In total, since the beginning of this year, we have learned of 51 sentences against 77 people for involvement in extremist and terrorist communities and organizations.

Separately, we can note the August 14 arrest in absentia of the former leader of the now banned ultra-right organizations Movement Against Illegal Immigration (DPNI) and the Ethnopolitical Association “Russians” (led by Alexander (Belov) Potkin) that replaced it. Potkin was previously placed on the wanted list in connection with charges under Article 174 CC (laundering of funds or other property acquired by other persons by criminal means).

We have information about two people fined in August under Article 20.29 of the Administrative Code (CAO) (production and distribution of extremist materials) for publishing the film Romper Stomper, popular among Russian ultra-rightists, on VKontakte; and for selling The Protocols of the Elders of Zion on Avito. Since the beginning of the year, we have learned of 81 people fined for distributing xenophobic materials listed on the Federal List of Extremist Materials.

We also learned of 20 people sanctioned in August under Article 20.3 CAO for publicly displaying prohibited Nazi symbols or symbols of prohibited nationalist organizations. The majority (16 out of 20) were punished for offline actions: one wrote the word “Azov” on a parked car. Fifteen (five of them penal colony inmates) were punished for displaying their own tattoos with Nazi symbols and symbols of prohibited Ukrainian organizations. Four people were held accountable for publishing materials with Nazi symbols on VKontakte. Eight of the 20 people were given administrative arrest, the rest were fined. In total, since the beginning of the year, we have learned of 480 punishments for such offenses.

Additionally, we have information about 19 cases of punishment under Article 20.3.1 CAO (incitement to hatred) in August. The defendants were held accountable for posting on VKontakte and mass messages on Telegram or WhatsApp of aggressive statements directed against people from Central Asia, natives of the Caucasus, Kalmyks, Russians, Jews, migrants, visitors, police officers and authorities. One was given administrative arrest, 17 were fined, and in one case the punishment is unknown to us.

Since the beginning of the year, we have learned of 252 court decisions made under Article 20.3.1 CAO on the basis of aggressive statements.

The Federal List of Extremist Materials was updated three times in – on August 5, 16, and 28. Items 5437–5440 were added: a song about school shooting; two satirical songs by the anti-fascist rock band Warriors of Zion about the Special Military Operation; and a song praising the Russian nationalist unit “Russian Volunteer Corps” that is fighting on the side of Ukraine.

Two items (items 110–111) were added to the Federal List of Extremist Organizations in August– branches of Citizens of the USSR from the Amur and Kemerovo regions.