News Releases

A bill including amendments to Article 20.3 of Russia’s Administrative Code, a section of the law On Countering Extremist Activity dealing with the display, manufacture, purchase and sale of Nazi attributes and symbols, was proposed in April and passed last week at a first reading in the State Duma. Sova opposes the initiative for reasons including the law’s vague wording, which provides for widespread abuse.

On June 5, Mark Feigin, counsel to Nadezhda Tolokonnikova, posted on his blog that Russian authorities decided on May 28 to prosecute his client under Part 2 of Article 213 of the Criminal Code (hooliganism committed by a group of persons by prior conspiracy of hate) over her alleged participation in Pussy Riot's punk prayer at the Cathedral of Christ the Saviour in Moscow. The indictment includes troubling passages that seem to be in direct conflict with elements of the Russian Constitution.

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

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

The following is a review of the primary events highlighting the misuse of Russian anti-extremism law in March 2012.

February saw two anti-extremist court rulings inappropriately issued and several cases unreasonably filed.

Sova is aware of only one inappropriate anti-extremist criminal sentence handed down in January. However January saw a sudden intensification of investigating some cases initiated earlier.

December provided plenty of examples of both the illegal implementation of criminal laws, and improper bans on extremism grounds.

On October 13, 2011, the Investigative Committee of Russia's Novosibirsk region announced the launch of a criminal investigation against two residents, filed under Article 282.2 of the Criminal Code: organizing activities in association with an organization banned for extremism. The investigation is part of a larger trend of suppressing the literature and followers of the late Turkish Muslim scholar Said Nursi in Russia, and follows a ban on the activities of the nonexistent organization "Nurcular" for extremism. Russian authorities allege that "Nurcular" is composed of Nursi's followers.

November 2011 was marked by a large number of wrongful prosecutions, and a jump – as was expected – in the abuse of anti-extremist legislation during the parliamentary election campaign.