News Releases

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.

October 2011 was marked on the one hand by a large number of wrongful criminal cases and improper bans, and on the other by the laudable termination of criminal proceedings against the Voina art group and the lifting of a ban on a painting depicting Mickey Mouse as Jesus Christ.

Misuse of anti-extremist legislation for the first month of autumn 2011 remained within the bounds of our biannual report for this year, published in Russian on September 22 and forthcoming in English.

This month, anti-extremism legislation was misused primarily in recognition of materials (mostly texts) as extremist. We also note a new bill introduced by the government to the Duma; it clarifies and extends some of the state’s methods of countering extremism.

In July we recorded one dubious criminal charge, and several questionable administrative decisions. In some cases, courts rejected improper accusations of extremism, but more often such accusations were approved. Also, of particular note is the involvement of the Federal Migration Service in prosecuting charges of extremism against a trade union activist.

A remarkable event this month was the June 28 Resolution of the plenary meeting of the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation N11 "On judicial practice in criminal cases involving crimes of an extremist nature." However, the usual trends remain rather negative.

This month we saw one significantly positive development: a serious clearing-out of the Federal List of Extremist Materials, which has long been plagued with multiple and outdated entries. Otherwise, we saw all the same trends reported in previous updates.