The following is our monthly review of instances of xenophobia and radical nationalism, along with any government countermeasures, for May 2026.

In May 2026, we became aware of 11 individuals who were victims of hate crimes. We were especially concerned by one incident, in which two of those attacked were minors. One incident in Moscow, in which two women attacked a 14-year-old Buryat girl who was hospitalized as a result, especially drew attention in society.

Among other incidents, one more of note was the attack by members of the “Russian Community of Petrograd” on taxi driver David Mirzoev over a video of a rude passenger.

Meanwhile in Severouralsk, Sverdlovsk Region, three young men from the local branch of the same “Russian Community” (Russkaya Obschina, RO) broke into the apartment of a 31-year-old man, brutally beat him, forced him to identify himself on camera as a “pedophile,” and robbed him, demanding 20,000 rubles in exchange for promising not to post the video.

This year to date, we are aware of 75 violent hate crimes.

We also learned of two acts of xenophobic vandalism committed in May. On May 10, a video appeared on a far-right Telegram channel showing activists tearing down, cutting up and trampling on a flag bearing the inscription “Happy Victory Day.” Another video, showing the arson of a car, was timed to coincide with the murder of Dmitry Borovikov, the leader of the St. Petersburg neo-Nazi group Combat Terrorist Organization (Boevaya Terroristicheskaya Organizatsiya, BTO) on May 19, 2006.

So far this year, we have recorded seven acts of xenophobic vandalism.

The “Russian Community,” Russian Druzhina and Northern Man continued to lead their traditional vigilante raids in May. This month, they ran an average of eight such raids per week. RO also attempted to intervene in a domestic conflict involving local Roma in the village of Solodushino, near Volgograd, without any further action.

Furthermore, RO actively expressed outrage at the introduction of Russian children to the customs of other peoples — for example, in Novoorsk, Orenburg Region, the children of the Rodnichok kindergarten were taken on a tour of a mosque, and teacher Gulia Sandybekova launched a project entitled “Culture and Traditions of the Kazakh People.” The Kemerovo branch of RO condemned the “Multicultural Kemerovo” competition, claiming that as part of the project, Russian children were dressed in Caucasian costumes, taught about Chinese traditions, read Armenian fairy tales, and taught how to make a Roma-style amulet. RO perceived this as propaganda of “the cultural characteristics of non-native peoples, which is of no use to anyone except representatives of such diasporas themselves.”

Nationalists actively participated in Victory Day celebrations on May 9. In St. Petersburg, National Bolsheviks marched along Nevsky Prospekt, carrying portraits of the fallen with slogans such as “Kyiv is a Russian city!”, “Our tanks will be in Prague!”, “Russia from Warsaw to Port Arthur!”, and the like, as well as Novorossiya flags. At the start of the march, National Bolshevik veterans Kirill Travkin and Viktor Zaitsev, as well as an underage sympathizer, were detained for carrying a portrait of Dmitry “Kostroma” Talanov, a comrade who died in the war with Ukraine. The portrait bore the slogan “Russia is everything! The rest is nothing!” and featured a hammer and sickle, which the police mistook for a swastika.

In Surgut, a column of members of RO, wearing black uniforms and carrying their flag, marched in formation during the Victory Day parade. RO reported on its Telegram channel that this was the first time the movement took part in a Victory Day parade.

Aside from those examples, RO participated in security roles in Victory Day parades and related events in seven Russian cities.

Likewise, Northern Man also provided security for the Victory Day rally in Oryol. Russian Druzhina  also provided security for the parade in Tyumen.

Nationalists' participation in the “Remember Odessa” commemorations on May 2, 2026, was much less visible. Members of Eduard Limonov's Other Russia, in some cases along with activists from Society.Future, laid flowers at monuments, eternal flames, and steles to Odessa in several cities. According to reports, no event drew more than 20 people. In St. Petersburg, staff at the Siege of Leningrad Museum, seeing National Bolsheviks laying red carnations at the Odessa memorial stone in Victory Square, mistook the event for a protest and demanded it be stopped.

We are aware of two sentences handed down in May to two individuals for violent hate crimes. In Kaluga, Vladislav Krylov, a member of the local equivalent of the Occupy Pedophiliay movement, was convicted of beating and torturing an Armenian. Under paragraphs "a" and "b" of Article 282 Part 2 of the Criminal Code (incitement of ethnic hatred committed with the use or threat of violence), the court sentenced him to four years of forced labor and a three-year ban on publicly posting online. (The other participants in the attack were under the age of criminal responsibility for this crime.) In Bashkortostan, a court sentenced a 49-year-old local resident to a three-year suspended sentence under paragraph "a" of Article 282 Part 2 CC for hitting and pushing a passerby wearing a hijab, insulting her, and wishing her death.

Additionally, in May, we learned of three criminal cases opened against five individuals for xenophobic violence. Specifically, Kirill Prisyazhnyuk, a member of the neo-Nazi group NS/WP Nevograd, was arrested in May of this year for the murder of Kazakhstani citizen Ainur Bulekbayeva in St. Petersburg and the attempted murder of Azerbaijani citizen Ilzufa Babayeva in February 2006 (!). It's worth noting that Prisyazhnyuk, even during the NS/WP investigation, managed to change his views, converted to Islam, and attempted to leave for Syria, but was detained at the border and convicted of recruiting for ISIS.

In total, we know of 12 sentences, against 22 people, handed down in the first five months of the year for violent hate crimes.

It should be added that Georgian-born Mikhail Chkhikvishvili, a member of the international hate group Maniacs. Murder Cult (Manyaki. Kult Ubiystv, MKU), was sentenced to 15 years in prison in the United States. He was accused of inciting and organizing violent crimes and mass poisonings, specifically attempting to organize a mass poisoning of Jewish children during Hanukkah.

Finally, in May, we learned of two convictions against two people for xenophobic vandalism. We also learned of three criminal cases against three people for similar acts. In total, since the beginning of the year, we are aware of four convictions against six people related to acts of xenophobic vandalism.

We address prosecution under other provisions of anti-extremism legislation in a separate review.