The following is our monthly review of instances of xenophobia and radical nationalism, along with any government countermeasures, for October 2025.
In October 2025, we recorded incidents in which 17 people were targeted and suffered in hate-motivated attacks. This year to date, we are aware of 242 such attacks; in seven of them, the victims were killed.
An attack motivated by religious hatred against a woman in Islamic dress in Saratov caused a media outcry: a teenager stabbed the city resident in the back “out of religious hatred for her being a Muslim.”
We also recorded four acts of xenophobic vandalism committed in October. In St. Petersburg, assailants attempted to set fire to a homeless shelter, in St. Petersburg and Khabarovsk, assailants dropped parts of a pigs in the prayer rooms and entrances of mosques, and in Moscow, a teenager painted offensive graffiti and Nazi symbols on a Jewish community tent during the holiday of Sukkot. Since the beginning of the year, we have recorded 43 acts of xenophobic vandalism.
The “Russian Community” and Northern Man continued their vigilante activities in October, including by coordinating their own raids, and participating in police raids, on residences and workplaces of migrants. In October, these two organizations conducted an average of 19 such raids each week.
In Chelyabinsk, nationalists took an active part in the religious procession on the day of the Synaxis of Saints of the Chelyabinsk Metropolitanate, which attracted approximately 1,500 people. Judging by the video footage of the event, approximately 150-200 members of the “Russian Community” were present; they unfurled a “Russian Community” banner right in front of the steps leading to the cathedral. Activists from nationalist groups including Russian Druzhina, Northern Man (about 60 people visible in the photo), Forty Forties, World Russian People's Council, Union of Cossack Warriors of Russia and Abroad and Combat Brotherhood also took part in the procession.
In early October 2025, the Center for Analysis of Migration Trends (CAMT), led by Roman Yuneman, released a report, Courier Delivery of Budget Losses, on the growing number of migrants in delivery services. According to the authors, at least 420,000 people who left manufacturing industries are working as couriers, creating a “pump” for migration to Russia. The authors believe that migrants are de facto privileged compared to local workers. To address these issues, CAMT proposes abolishing labor patents and allowing migrants to be hired exclusively under employment contracts.
We are aware of only one sentence handed down in October in relation to xenophobic violence. In Stavropol Krai, a court sentenced another participant in the mass riots at Makhachkala International Airport to seven years in a general regime penal colony. (According to the Investigative Committee, 136 people have been convicted of participating in the riots at Uytash Airport.) Since the beginning of the year, we have learned of 34 sentences against 153 people for violent hate crimes.
Aside from these data, we also recorded two cases, against two people, initiated in October on the basis of hate-motivated attacks.
We also learned of one sentence handed down in October on the basis of xenophobic vandalism. In St. Petersburg, a graduate of the Institute of Music, Theatre, and Choreography at Herzen University was sentenced to a year of correctional labor after she wrote an inscription referring to a verse from the Quran calling for the persecution of polytheists on an arch near the Church of St. Xenia of St. Petersburg. Since the beginning of the year, we have learned of 16 such sentences against 16 people. In October, we learned of three new cases against three people.
We address prosecutions under other provisions of anti-extremist legislation in a separate review.
