The following is our monthly review of instances of xenophobia and radical nationalism, along with any government countermeasures, for March 2025.
In March 2025, according to our data, 24 people were targeted in hate-motivated attacks. Since the beginning of 2025 to date, we have recorded 81 hate-motivated attacks.
In addition, media reported that activists from the ultra-right organization “Russian Community” beat up a security guard, one Malik Ashrafov, a native of Dagestan, at the grocery store “Verny” in St. Petersburg. Ashrafov was alleged to have previously had a conflict with a customer.
We also recorded five acts of xenophobic vandalism committed in March. In one, including on the eve of the celebration of Eid al-Fitr, unknown assailants set fire to a Muslim prayer house in Yegoryevsk, Moscow Region. The fire damaged a nearby café and a car service center. Neo-Nazis from the far-right organization NS/WP, which is banned in Russia, claimed responsibility for the arson.
This year to date, we have recorded nine acts of xenophobic vandalism.
In March, the ultra-right’s traditional vigilante actions continued.
The “Russian Community” and “Northern Man” participated in anti-migrant raids on hostels and retail outlets.
Aside from this, activists from “Northern Man” joined the fight against “illegal missionary work”: in Moscow, near the Vodny Stadion metro station, one activist tried to stop a man of “non-Slavic appearance” who was distributing the newspaper As-Salam, which is associated with the Spiritual Administration of Muslims of Dagestan, sending him to the police.
Meanwhile, the “Call of the Nation” movement has filed acomplaint with the head of the Russian Investigative Committee and the FSB demanding that they check the activities of the Piotrovsky bookstore at the Yeltsin Center in Moscow.
Roman Yuneman, leader of the “Society.Future” movement, presented statistics on “migrant crime research” on behalf of his own Center for the Analysis of Migration Trends (CAMT). The report concludes that migrants commit many crimes, while the state tries to obfuscate the situation. The report cites official data, but does not explain the fact that the statistics of the Ministry of Internal Affairs show a similar percentage of crimes committed by foreigners year after year. For example, the report for 2024 says that “foreigners” committed 0.9 % fewer crimes (4.3 % of those investigated), but citizens of the CIS countries committed 0.6 % more (3.6 % of those investigated). And if we compare the figures presented by CAMT on the number of terrorists among migrants with the data of the judicial department at the Supreme Court for 2024, which was done, for example, by P(ipeline) Telegram channel, it turns out that there are 1/18th as many terrorists among foreigners as Yuneman’s count would have one believe.
In March, we learned of six sentences against 33 people for xenophobic violence. Among those convicted were 18 participants in the mass riots at Makhachkala International Airport, who were sentenced by Stavropol Krai courts to imprisonment for terms ranging from seven to ten and a half years. In Ulyanovsk, six underage ultra-right activists received suspended sentences for committing several hate-motivated attacks on Indian students and for breaking windows at an Islamic cultural center.
In addition, we learned of two criminal cases against three people that were opened in March on the basis of hate-motivated attacks.
This year to date, we have recorded 12 convictions, of 53 people, for xenophobic violence; and six convictions (against the same number of people) for xenophobic vandalism.
We noted nine sentences for involvement in extremist communities and organizations, against 32 people, including members of an unnamed ultra-right community, associates of Svetlana Lada-Rus (Peunova), supporters of the Ukrainian "Russian Volunteer Corps" (RDK) and the "Freedom of Russia" Legion, and supporters of the "Prisoners’ Criminal Unity" (AUE).
In March, there were also reports of five new criminal cases opened during the month, against six people alleged to have participated in the activities of various banned associations.
Since the beginning of the year, we have learned of 19 sentences against 37 people in cases of involvement in recognized extremist or terrorist communities and organizations, excluding clearly improper sentences.
We have information about 14 sentences, against the same number of people, issued in March on the basis of aggressive public statements. They include:
— Four people were convicted under Article 205.2 Part 2of the Criminal Code (СС) (calls for terrorist activity or justification of such) for comments on Telegram, WhatsApp and unnamed social networks approving the actions of radical Islamists, the activities of the Taliban or the RDK.
— Three people were convicted under Article 280 CC (public calls for extremist activity) for posting on VKontakte calls for xenophobic violence and violence against Russian citizens and military personnel.
— One person was sanctioned under a combination of Articles 205.2 and 280 CC for social media comments calling for violent actions against people from the Caucasus and Central Asia, and Russian government officials.
— One person was convicted under Article 354.1 CC (rehabilitation of Nazism) for certain comments on social media related to the denial of Nazi crimes during World War II.
— One person was sanctioned under Article 282.4 Part 1 CC (repeated display of prohibited symbols) for repeatedly displaying his own swastika tattoos.
— The publicist Boris Stomakhin, who previously served several prison terms and is currently in exile, was sentenced in absentia to 10 years of imprisonment under paragraph “a” of Article 282 Part 2CC (incitement to hatred with the threat of violence) and paragraph “d” of Article 207.3 Part 2 CC (dissemination of fakes about the Russian army motivated by hatred) for publications unknown to us.
Nine of the 14 people were sentenced to imprisonment, three to fines, and two to compulsory labor.
Some of those sentenced to imprisonment for their statements were convicted under other articles of the Criminal Code, or were already in prison.
Five people were sentenced to imprisonment in the absence of information about the circumstances that would have led to such a punishment.
— In Khabarovsk, the First Eastern District Military Court sentenced a citizen of one of the Central Asian countries to one and a half years in a minimum-security penal colony under Article 205.2 CC because, being an adherent of a certain radical movement of Islam, shejustified the activities of a terrorist organization in a messenger public chat.
—The Second Eastern District Military Court sentenced one Sergei Burdin, a 39-year-old resident of Khakassia, to three and a half years in a minimum-security penal colony under Article280Part 2 CC and Article 205.2 Part 2 CC for comments on social media with calls “to commit hostile and violent acts against representatives of different nationalities, as well as government bodies and senior officials.”
—In Krasnodar,Mikhail Fursov was sentenced to six months in a penal colony under Article 282.4 Part 1 CC for posting a photo of himself on his social media page in July 2024, which showed his tattoos with Nazi symbols (the Celtic cross, the Wolfsangel, and the symbol of the SS Death's Head Division). He had previously been held accountable twice under Article 20.3 of the Code of Administrative Offenses (CAO) for similar acts.
—In the Zabaikalsky Krai, a former police officer was sentenced to three years in a minimum-security penal colony under Article 280 CC for posts in messenger chats and on social networks calling for violence against military personnel.
—In Barnaul, a 22-year-old resident of the Kemerovo Region was sentenced to eight months ofimprisonment under Article 280 Part 2 CC for posting comments calling for violence against Russians on Telegram.
We have information about 15 new criminal cases opened in March for aggressive public statements.
Since the beginning of the year, we have recorded 77 convictions against the same number of people on this basis.
We know of seven people fined in February under Article 20.29 CAO (production and distribution of extremist materials) – forposting songs by the neo-Nazi groups Kolovrat, Gangs of Moscow, and some other xenophobic materials on VKontakte, as well as selling the book The Protocols of the Elders of Zionon Avito. Since the beginning of the year, we have learned of 22 cases of penalties for distributing materials listed in the Federal List of Extremist Materials.
We also learned of 45 cases of punishment under Article 20.3 CAO (propaganda and public display of prohibited symbols). The vast majority (38 people) were held accountable for displaying Nazi symbols, and the rest – forposting symbols of ISIS and banned Ukrainian organizations on social networks. Ten people were punished for offline actions: eight people (three of them being prisoners in penal colonies) displayed their own tattoos with Nazi symbols, and two drew swastikas in the entrance of a residential building and on a fence. Eight of the 45 were sentenced to administrative arrest, while the rest were fined. In total, since the beginning of the year, we have learned of 146 cases of punishment for such offenses.
Further, we have information about 25 people punished in March for aggressive statements under Article 20.3.1 CAO (incitement to hatred). Sixteen of them were sanctioned for xenophobic statements on VKontakte, Odnoklassniki, Telegram and Instagram about natives of Central Asia and the Caucasus, Roma people, Jews, Ingush people, Mordvins, migrants in general, ethnic Russians, citizens of Russia, government officials, and police officers. Four were punished for offline actions: xenophobic insults during conflicts, and an Islamophobic slogan written on the wall of a residential building. Two (out of 25) were sentenced to administrative arrest, while the rest were fined. In total, we have recorded 97 such court decisions since the beginning of this year.
The Federal List of Extremist Materials was updated once, on March 5, to account for new entries 5458–5460. The list was supplemented by a collection of sonnetmonologues, Stars in Jihad and Shadows in Fire, dedicated to the memory of the Chechen field commander and radical Islamist ArbiBarayev; a book by the publisher of the antisemitic newspaper Empire Igor Dyakov, The Great Civil War of 1941–1945; and a song by the popular ultra-right rapper Raskol (Nikolai Raskolnikov), “To Be Russian.”
An association, “whose members are Nevzorov Alexander Glebovich, born on August 3, 1958… and Nevzorov Lidiya Alexeyevna, born on March 29, 1973,” was added to the Federal List of Extremist Organizations under item 118; it wasdeemed extremist by the decision of the Oktyabrsky District Court of St. Petersburg on July 2, 2024.
The Ukrainian paramilitary association National Liberation Movement Right Sector and its structural units – the organization “Right Youth” and the association “Volunteer Ukrainian Corps of Right Sector,” which the Supreme Court recognized as terrorist on January 23, 2025, were added to the list of organizations deemed terrorist by the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation under paragraph 62. Previously, Right Sector had already been recognized as an extremist organization. This is the first case of such reclassification known to us.
On March 31, 2025, the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation upheldaclaim from the Prosecutor General to suspend the ban on the activities of the Taliban, which was banned in 2003 as a terrorist organization. This brought the first application of aDecember 2024 law stating that if the movement stops promoting, justifying and supporting terrorism, it can be excluded from the list of terrorist organizations.
