Law enforcement practice

In 2010, 48 people were convicted for crimes and offenses with an anti-Semitic basis, which is almost 8% from the general number of those convicted over xenophovic crimes (574 people). The number of convicts remains on a similar level with those of previous years.

8 were given warnings, 16 were sentenced to a fine, 14 to a suspended sentence of imprisonment, 1 to compulsory community service, 1 to custodial restrains, 1 to incarceration of up to one year, and 4 for incarceration of 1 to 5 years. The sentence of 3 of the convicted is unknown. Thus, it can be seen that the ratio of suspended sentences is still quite noticeable. Suspended sentences do not instill fear of punishment into the criminal, and give him an aura of innocent martyrdom. A more effective punishment for non-violent crimes would have been a large fine, and for violent crimes – actual incarceration.

The positive news include Internet providers blocking of access to anti-Semitic literature in the Internet by recommendation of the prosecutors' office, though this practice was not without its anecdotes (see below.)

The most significant examples of the law enforcement practice in this area are given below.

On February 4, the Kirov District Court of St. Petersburg sentenced the editor-in-chief of the “Rus Pravoslavnaya” (“Orthodox Rus”) newspaper, Konstantin Dushenov to three years of incarceration in a penal settlement. Dushenov was accused of instigating hatred through the media. Two other subjects in this case – Alexander Malyshev and Petr Meleshko – received suspended sentences of 1,5 and 1 year respectively. The tribunal of the St. Petersburg City Court dismissed Dushenov's, Meleshko's, and Malyshev's cassation appeal. The Dushenov sentence sets a precedent – for the first time a famous anti-Semitic ideologist has been sentenced to an actual incarceration.

On March 4, Samara Oblast Public Prosecutor Yuri Denisov gave legal notice to local businessman Talaibek Sheraliev, who promulgated the teachings of the supressed organization “Tabligi Jamaat,” of the inadmissibility of extremist activity,

On March 12, it became known that administrative proceedings were instigated against two citizens of Sergiev Posad for placing audio recordings of the “Cyclon B” band, which have been recognized as extremist, on their web pages in the social network “V Kontakte.” They were fined for 1000 roubles each and deleted the songs from their web pages.

On March 25 and 30, two citizens of Lipetsk were found guilty by article 20.29 of the Administrative Offences Code of the Russian Federation (mass dissemination of extremist materials included into the federal list of extremist material) for spreading the videos “Eternal Jew” and “Russia With a Knife in Its Back,” which are both in the federal list of extremist material. They were both fined.

On April 27, the neo-Pagan Alexei Dobrovolsky (Dobroslav) was found guilty by article 282 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation by the Lenin District Court, and was sentenced to 1 year's suspended sentence, even though the prosecutor's office requested 1,5 years of incarceration.

In April 2010, the Butyrsky District Couty of Moscow passed judgment on the case of 69-year-old Vitaliy Pasekov, who was accused to disseminating anti-Semitic literature and corresponding agitation. He was sentenced to 1 year and 2 months' suspended incarceration and compulsory residential psychiatric treatment.

On May 26, 35-year-old Igor Condratyev was declared by the Soviet District Court of Novosibirsk to be guilty of spreading the “Eternal Jew” movie, which is considered to be extremist material. He was sentenced to an administrative fine of 2000 roubles. On June 24, the Soviet District Court of Novosibirsk dismissed Condratyev's cassation.

On June 1, the Central District Court of Chelyabinsk passed judgment on Bashkir nationalist-Islamists, having found their activities to be extremist. The court found Dzhavat Kamalov, Chingiz Halafov, Madina Dyatlova and Faima Zakieva to be guilty of organizing an extremist community, of instigating hatred or enmity, of calling for violence towards citizens. Kamalov and Halafov were sentenced to 4 years in a general regime penal colony, Dyatlova and Zakieva received 2,6 years' suspended sentence.

On June 10, by decision of the Sverdlovsk Oblast Court, the decision of the Verh-Isetsk Disrict Court in Ekaterinburg about the recognition of the book “The Strike of the Russian Gods” (“Udar Russkih Bogov”) by Vladimir Istarhov to be extremist.

On June 15, the Ostankino Court of Moscow stopped the activity of the “To the barrier!” (“K Baryeru,” which means “an invitation to duel – transl.) newspaper, published by nationalist Y. Mukhin. Then this decision was canceled after clarifying a question of jurisdiction, and the case was reviewd by the Moscow City Court, which once again decided to close the newspaper.

On June 25 it became known that a St. Petersburg buisnessman who sold in his stand V. Yemeyanov's book “Jewish Fascism,” which is in the federal list of extremist materials, was fined 1000 roubles by a court decision.

On July 28 it became known that the Central District Court of Komsomolsk-na-Amur made a decision to restrict access to 5 websites for disseminating extremist materials, including Hitler's “Mein Kampf.” Among the blocked sites was the worldwide video hosting site YouTube, as well as the web.archive.org website. The decision of the court provoked a large scandal, and was later corrected by a higher ranking authority that decreed that access should be restricted only to the extremist materials themselves, and not to the websites as a whole.

On September 15, it became known that the editor-in-chief of the Klintsy newspaper “New Working Newspaper” (“Novaya Rabochaya Gazeta”, Bryansk Oblast) Sergei Melnikov has been warned by the prosecutor's office of Klintsy for publishing an article with extremist content, titled “Zionism is worse than Fascism for Russia.”

On September 22, the Pravoberezhny District Court of Magnitogorsk passed judgment on A. Lozovsky – leader of the organization “Russian National Movement.” which was once a branch of the “National-Socialist Society.” The court decided the Lozovsky no longer poses a threat to society, and gave him a suspended sentence of 2,5 years with a probation period of 3 years.

On September 28, the Kropotkinsky City Court sentenced V. Ponomarenko, accused of spreading RNE newspapers, to a fine of 100 000 roubles.

On December 7, the Armavir City Court passed judgment of the anti-Semite lawyer A. Mozhegorov. He was fined 350 000 roubles for spreading anti-Semitic literature, of which 200 000 roubles were canceled because of expiry of the statute of limitation.

Several organizations that preached anti-Semitism as part of their ideology were suppressed. On February 1, the Supreme Court decreed that the National-Socialist Society is an extremist organization, and on February 8 the Supreme Court imposed a ban on the activity of the Imarat Kavkaz organization, declaring it to be a terrorist organization. On April 27, the Moscow City court recognized the Interregional Social Movement “Slavic Union” to be extremist and banned it. On June 29, the Supreme Court supported this decision. On September 15, the RF Supreme Court banned the activity of the religious group “Takfir wal-Hijra,” recognizing it as extremist. On September 22, the Nizhegorod Oblast Court recognized the activity of the National Socialist Worker's Party of Russia, which was active in the region, as extremist.

However, these bans do not always have any real effect. The activists of the banned organizations have the possibility to continue their activities under a new, often merely cosmetically changed name. This was the case, for instance with the “Slavic Union” (“Slavyansky Soyuz”) which quickly became “Slavic Strength,” preserving the same symbols, the same leader, and the “SS” abbreviation. At the same time, the administration of their website, demushkin.com, refused to comply with the demands of the General Prosecutor's office, and to remove Hitler's Mein Kampf from the website, citing that they were not citizens of the Russian Federation and thus do not have to act by its laws. In other cases, similar situations happened with currently practically destroyed organizations (NSO, NSRPR).

Most of the 300 new positions in the Federal List of Extremist Materials consist of anti-Semitic literature.

There was a number of incidents in which the authorities have been mistaken in their accusations of xenophobia and anti-Semitism. On March 26, the Sakhalin Oblast Court left the decision of a lower-ranked court standing, in which the leaflet “The Image of the Enemy in German War Propaganda” was decreed extremist.

On March 26 and June 18, respectively, the Kirov District Court of Ufa declared Hitler's “Mein Kampf” and Mussolini's “The Doctrine of Fascism” to be extremist, as well as Mussolini's “Memoirs 1942-1943.” Such recognition is obviously excessive, because these and similar materials is already in the text of the law on counteracting extremist activity.

Among the extremist materials that have been included into the Federal list was the book “Hitler's Table-Talks,” which was actively being used by scholars as a source.

There were also regretful decisions of the courts that can only be seen as connivance towards radical nationalists.
In the beginning of March it became known that the Lenin District Court of Kirov relieved a citizen of the city from criminal responsibility for placing video, photo, and audio materials of a Nazi character on their “V Kontakte” social network webpage, having decided that they were “works of fiction.”