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

In November 2024, 12 people were reported to have been seriously beaten in hate-motivated attacks. At least one of the attacks had irreversible consequences: on November 16, in Kostroma, a group of neo-Nazis attacked two teenagers returning from a film about the anti-fascist Ivan Khutorskoy, who was murdered by far-right activists. As a result of a shot from a flare gun, one of the teenagers was blinded in one eye.

According to our date, 238 people have been seriously injured in hate-motivated attacks in 2024 to date.

Since the beginning of this year, we have also recorded 20 acts of xenophobic vandalism, though none of them occurred in November.

On November 4, the day of the “Russian March,” Russian nationalists mainly celebrated by attending cultural events, conducting “agit-raids,” making appeals to regional leaders and participating in religious processions. The most notable was the religious procession in honor of the Kazan Icon of the Mother of God in Nizhny Novgorod, where about 400 members of the “Double-Headed Eagle” and the “Brotherhood of Academists” led by the Orthodox oligarch Konstantin Malofeev marched with banners reading “Together as One,” imperial flags and flags with the symbols of the “Double-Headed Eagle,” chanting “We are Russians, God is with us,” “Russians forward,” etc.

Other nationalist activity took its usual forms.

Activists from the “Russian Community” led anti-migrant raids. Meanwhile, the “Northern Man” movement participated in at least two such raids, in Balashikha and Magnitogorsk.

Aside from those, the “Russian Community” released an entire series of video clips, in which Vladimir region residents express approval for a proposed local initiative to ban the niqab and hijab.

The “Forty Forties” movement succeeded in getting scheduled performances by the comic Guram Demidov canceled in Samara and Volgograd, on the basis of jokes about Jesus Christ.

We are not aware of any court rulings delivered in November in respect of hate-motivated crimes.

However, we learned of one criminal case in November opened on the basis of xenophobic violence, as well as one in respect of xenophobic vandalism.

Since the beginning of this year, we have recorded 14 convictions for xenophobic violence, against 34 individuals, and six convictions for xenophobic vandalism, against the same number of people.

We have information regarding 15 rulings handed down in November for aggressive public statements, against 15 people. Theyinclude:

-       Four people charged under Article 280 of the Criminal Code (CC) (public calls for extremist activity) for posting statements on VKontakte against “representatives of the peoples of Asia,” teachers, pensioners, police officers, and supporters of the president of the Russian Federation;

-       Five people charged under Article 205.2 CC (public calls for terrorist activity or justification of the same) for statements calling for violence against “infidels,”for statements against the Special Military Operation and those approving the bombing of the Crimean Bridge as well as forcomments on Telegram and VKontakte calling for “massive burning of Russian military facilities and the destruction of Russian citizens”;

-       Two people charged under Article 354.1 CC (rehabilitation of Nazism) – onefor comments on VKontakte denying the Holocaust, and the other, for the agitation in his prison cell;

-       Three prison inmates charged under Article 282.4 CC (repeated public demonstration of Nazi symbols) for demonstration of their own tattoos with Nazi symbols.

Eight of the fifteen people were sentenced to prison time; five to suspended sentences; one was fined, and one was given compulsory labor.

Most of those sentenced to imprisonment were convicted under a combination of other articles of the Criminal Code or were already in prison. For statements, in the absence of circumstances known to us that would lead to imprisonment, one sentence was handed down: the Central District Military Court in Yekaterinburg sentenced History and Social Studies teacher Alexei Pokazanyev to three years in a penal colony under Article 205.2 Part 1 CCfor commenting on events related to the bombing of the Crimean Bridge during a lesson, and “making a statement justifying an attempt on the life of a statesman – thepresident of the Russian Federation.”

This year to date, we have recorded 224 rulings in respect of aggressive statements, convicting 240 individuals. In November, we also became aware of eight new such criminal cases, brought against 12 people.

This month we learned of three convictions, against 11 people, for participation in the activities of AUE and an unnamed Islamist terrorist organization.

We also learned of two criminal cases, brought against three people, for participation in the activities of the ultra-right group NS/WP and the AUE.

In all, since the beginning of the year, we have learned of 77 sentences against 138 people in cases of involvement in recognized extremist or terrorist communities and organizations, excluding clearly those sentences we consider to be inappropriate.

We have information on one person fined in November under Article 20.29 of the Code of Administrative Offenses (CAO) (production and distribution of extremist materials): for the publication on VKontakte of the Australian film Romper Stomper, which is popular among the Russian ultra-right. This year to date, we have learned about 97 people fined for the distribution of materials listed in the Federal List of Extremist Materials.

We recorded 38 November court decisions made under Article 20.3 CAO (public display of Nazi symbols or symbols of banned organizations). Four people (two of them being colony inmates) were punished for displaying tattoos with Nazi symbols. Two others were sanctioned for drawing such symbols on a road sign and on asphalt. One threw a Nazi salute in a store. The rest published various materials with Nazi symbols or symbols of the Ukrainian Right Sector on VKontakte and Telegram. In 27 of these cases, administrative arrest was imposed, in the rest – afine. In total, since the beginning of the year, we have learned of 678 cases of punishment for such offenses.

We also have information about 12 people fined under Article 20.3.1 CAO (incitement to hatred) this month. Most were punished for posting aggressive statements on VKontakte and Telegram against people from the Caucasus and Central Asia, Buryats, Jews, Russians, non-Russians, Orthodox Christians, officials, and police officers. A resident of the Nizhny Novgorod region was punished for an offline statement: she approached a neighbor sitting in a car and shouted Russophobic insults that were heard by residents of an apartment building.

This year to date, we have learned of 605 court decisions issued in respect of aggressive public statements under Article 20.3.1 CAO.

The Federal List of Extremist Materials was updated three times, on November 8, 20 and 26, to account for new entries 5449–5442.

The new additions include: an Islamic book highlighting the ideological differences between ISIS and Al-Qaeda; the neo-Nazi song The Voice of Russia by the artist Svarozhich, which glorifies the actions of neo-Nazi groups whose members have been convicted of committing violent crimes; two books in Ukrainian –Anti-Soviet Stories by Oleg Panfilov and a collection of articles Russian Occupation and De-Occupation of Ukraine: History, Current Threats andChallenges: Proceedings of the All-Ukrainian Research and Practical Conference. We consider the ban of these books to be inappropriate.

In November, the “Omsk Civil Association,” recognized as extremist by the Omsk Regional Court on June 5, 2024, was added to the Federal List of Extremist Organizations.

In November, the Islamic State (jamaat) “Islamic Bakkiya” (as it is designated in the List) and the Russian branch of AUM Shinrikyo were added to the list of organizations recognized as terrorist.