The following is our monthly review of instances of xenophobia and radical nationalism, along with any government countermeasures, for August 2025.
According to our data, no fewer than 10 people were injured in hate-motivated attacks in August 2025. This year to date, we have recorded 198 such attacks. Five of the people targeted were killed.
We also recorded two acts of xenophobic vandalism committed in August: In Blagoveshchensk, an unknown assailant set fire to a mosque, while in Obninsk three ultra-right activists attempted to burn down a synagogue. The neo-Nazi network NS/WP claimed responsibility for the latter act. This year to date, we have become aware of 34 acts of xenophobic vandalism.
We do not include low-risk attacks on people or property or serious threats in these calculations. For example, two young men shouted xenophobic insults and threats at a girl standing in St. Petersburg near the Hermitage, ultimately stealing her phone.
In August, we learned about large-scale online harassment campaign against the Children of St. Petersburg organization, which helps children from migrant families: numerous aggressive racist comments appeared on the organization’s Telegram channel. In addition, employees received threatening calls and personal messages.
In August, the traditional ultra-right vigilante activity continued. The “Russian Community” continued to conduct its own raids and participate in police anti-migrant raids at migrants’ places of residence and work.
The “Russian Community,” together with the members of the “Young Guard” and the Cossacks, tried to disrupt the annual reading of the names of the victims of Stalinist repression in Karelia at the Sandarmokh memorial cemetery. They hung several tablets on trees with the names of dead foreigners who fought for the Armed Forces of Ukraine, and later dumped water on participants in the memorial, and sang the Russian military ballad “Katyusha.” “Russian Community” members threatened that they would jail those who tried to stop them. Nearby security forces did not intervene.
Aggressive actions by members of the “Russian Community” did not prevent the Russian Orthodox Church leadership from establishing systematic cooperation with them: the Management of the affairs of the Moscow Patriarchate distributed a letter addressed to the diocesan bishops, calling for contact with the regional branches of the Russian Community.
On August 1, members of the Society.Future organization laid flowers to the monuments of ethnic Russian soldiers who died in the First World War; the action took place in several Russian cities, but did not gather more than 12 people in any of them.
From August 15 to 21, the “Movement of Nationalists” held their traditional “Heroes’ Days,” dedicated to the anniversary of the Tambov Rebellion, an anti-Bolshevik peasant uprising during the Russian Civil War. Participants established impromptu memorials with portraits of heroes of the White movement, laid flowers to them and lit candles.
We are aware of only one ruling delivered in August for a violent hate crime: in St. Petersburg, a court sentenced Vladislav Poplavsky under Article 213 Part 2 of the Criminal Code (CC) (hooliganism) to a suspended sentence for an attack, with his associates, on a native of Tajikistan. In total, since the beginning of the year, we have recorded 31 convictions, of 143 people, for violent hate crimes.
There was also one criminal case initiated in August, against a single defendant, on the basis of a hate-motivated attack.
We also learned of one sentence made in August for xenophobically-motivated vandalism: in Moscow, a court sentenced a local resident under Article 214 Part 2 CC (vandalism motivated by hatred) to one and a half years’ prison time for the spraypainted graffiti “14/88” on a supermarket wall. In total, since the beginning of the year, we have recorded eight sentences, against the same number of people, for xenophobic vandalism; in one other case, the defendant was exempted from liability and was sent to compulsory medical treatment.
