The following is our review of May 2012’s primary and most representative examples of the misuse of anti-extremism legislation in Russia.

Criminal Prosecution

In May 2012, known incidents of wrongful criminal prosecution affected mainly the followers of various religious groups that Russian authorities consider socially harmful, despite the fact that they are not connected to the practice or advocacy of violence.

At the end of the month, the Astrakhan court sentenced a local resident to 1.5 years imprisonment in a penal colony, charged under Part 1 of Article 282.2 of the Criminal Code (organization of the activities of an extremist organization) and another four were sentenced to a large fine based on Part 2 of Article 282.2 of the Criminal Code (participation in activities of an extremist organization,) as they were found guilty of disseminating the ideas of the prohibited religious association "Tablighi Jamaat."

In the beginning of May it was reported that a criminal case based on Part 1 of Article 282.2 of the Criminal Code was filed in the village of Kosh-Agaсh in the Altai Republic. The imams of the local Muslim organization and the Tashatin mosque are under suspicion of organizing a "Tablighi Jamaat" cell.

In mid-May, a criminal case based on a similar accusation and the same article was brought against a resident of Orenburg.

In those days, a case based on a similar article was brought against a follower of "Tablighi Jamaat" in Kansk (Krasnoyarsky Krai.)

In Bashkiria in the middle of the month, a criminal case under Parts 1 and 2 of Article 282.2 of the Criminal Code was filed against five residents of the city of Tuimaza and the village of Gafurovo. They are suspected of participation in the activities of "Hizb ut-Tahrir," which is recognized as a terrorist organization in Russia.

It was reported in the beginning of May that a criminal case was filed under Part 1 of Article 282 of the Criminal Code (agitation of hatred or enmity) based on the activities of Jehovah’s Witnesses in Orenburg and the Orenburg region.

In Bashkiria the trial of five bloggers, accused of participation in the creation of a forbidden extremist website "Ufa Gubernskaya" and the violation of several "extremism" articles of the Criminal Code, was resumed in May. Investigation of the case began in August 2009. In February 2011 the Leninsky Regional Court in Ufa returned the case to the prosecutor’s office due to gross procedural violations in the indictment. However in April 2011 the Supreme Court of the Republic of Bashkortostan overturned the regional court's ruling and ordered it to reexamine the case.

On May 15, 2011 an activist from the "Other Russia" party, Mikhail Klyuzhev, was detained in Moscow as a participant in the attack on a Foreign Ministry reception room in 2008. He, along with the other two participants in the action who have been under trial since April, are charged under Part 2 of Article 282.2 of the Criminal Code for participation in activities of the forbidden National Bolshevik Party.

Administrative Prosecution

In mid-May Sergei Reshetnev, a blogger from Gorno-Altaisk was fined 500 rubles under Part 1 of Article 20.3 of the Administrative Code of the Russian Federation (propaganda and public demonstration of Nazi attributes or symbolism). The case was occasioned by the fact that, in February 2012 Reshetnev posted a row of photographs on his "Vkontakte" profile that included images of Adolph Hitler and Nazi symbolism showing parallels between the governing style of the city's mayor and the practices of the Third Reich. Recall that current legislation does not take into account the goal behind the use of Nazi symbolism, so a person can be fined for publicly displaying this symbolism independent of whether he or she was propagandizing Nazism.

At the end of the month is was reported that the director of the Central Library System in the city of Shakhty in the Rostov Region was found guilty of an administrative offense based on Article 20.29 of the Administrative Code (storage of texts included in the published federal list of extremist materials with the purpose of mass distribution) and was fined 2000 rubles. The filing of this case against the librarian was occasioned by fact that, freely available in the library’s catalogue, forbidden extremist materials could be found, including two copies of "Final Entries 1945: The Diaries of Joseph Goebbels," and three copies of "Hitler’s Table Talk" by Henry Picker. Recall that the legislation over libraries does not provide a mechanism for any filtering of their catalogues, rendering librarians an easy target in the "fight with extremism."

Prohibition of Extremist Materials

In May we saw the development of several high-profile and, in our view, illegitimate processes of finding material extremist.

The Naberezhnochelninsky Municipal Court refused to hear a case, sent there for review by the Supreme Court of the Republic of Tatarstan, of finding 12 Scientologist materials extremist. During the session, the court concluded that the hearing without a defendant was inadmissible, and refused to process the complaint.

In the Lyublinsky Regional Court in Moscow, a new review began in the case of the recognition of shirts with the slogan "Orthodox or Die!" as extremist. The case was returned to that court by the Moscow City Court. The court listened to expert opinions.

The Federal Arbitration Court of the Moscow District upheld a ban by the Roskomandzor on the distribution of the Jehovah's Witnesses' magazines "Awake!" and "Watchtower," affirming the ruling of the Ninth Arbitration Court of Appeals.

Police Tyranny

In Tyumen the Investigative Committee is reviewing the legality of police actions against Nikolai Lambin, the administrator of a "Vkontakte" group called "Tyumen against election fraud" and a special correspondent for the local newspaper "The People’s Word" as well as a worker at the local Center for Counteraction to Extremism, who was detained on May 12 on suspicion of drug possession. Lambin argues that the police planted drugs on him, accompanying this action with beatings and threats.

In May we became aware of a series of cases of the wrongful removal of cases of printed materials under the pretext of checking them for extremism when a few copies would be sufficient for examination. This method is increasingly used to prevent the spread of opposition materials.

On May 3 in Voronezh the police searched the cars of participants in the nationwide campaign "Motor Rally 2012: From Kamchatka to Moscow" and seized all leaflets with campaign advertisements for examination.

On May 4 in Yaroslavl 18 residents of Tyumen, Solikamsk, and Khanty-Mansiisk, who were traveling through that city to Moscow for the "Million March" on May 6 were seized and more than 3,000 leaflets and newspapers were seized from them.

On May 19 in Stavropol policemen, on the pretext of examining them for extremism, seized two hundred "When your TV is silent…" pamphlets about falsifications in the course of elections and the dispersion of the May protests from activists with the local "White Ribbon" movement.