SOVA Center has maintained this database of criminal case outcomes since 2007. Please note the following guidelines for use.

While its title uses the word «sentences,» the database includes various criminal case outcomes, including verdicts and decisions to terminate criminal prosecution. We do not include cases returned to prosecutors or suspended proceedings, as these do not represent final outcomes.

Our verdict dates reflect when the court of first instance issued its decision. This differs from the Supreme Court’s Judicial Department statistics, which use the date when sentences enter into legal force.

The database includes only criminal cases that align with SOVA Center’s research priorities. In some cases, our selection criteria are limited by our research capacity. We include verdicts in the following categories:

· Cases where the court recognized a hate motive as a qualifying characteristic;

· Cases involving crimes against persons or property that we assess as hate-motivated but not recognized as such by the court;

· Cases involving «anti-extremist» articles on speech (Articles 280, 280.1, 280.3, 280.4, 282, 282.4, 284.2 CC), justifying terrorism (Article 205.2 CC), «rehabilitating Nazism» (Article 354.1 CC), «insulting the feelings of believers» (Parts 1 and 2 of Article 148 CC), as well as desecrating the Russian state flag or coat of arms (Article 329 CC, only in cases that we consider inappropriate);

· Cases under articles on organized extremist activity (Articles 282.1, 282.2, 282.3) or establishing non-commercial organizations whose activities involve inciting citizens to commit unlawful acts and participating in the activities of such organizations or propaganda of such acts (Part 2 and, to some extent, Part 3 of Article 239 CC);

· Cases under the article on organizing a terrorist community (Article 205.4) — only when related to ultra-right groups;

· Cases on organizing the activities of a terrorist organization (under Article 205.5 CC) and contributing to terrorist activities (Article 205.1 CC) — only when related to far-right organizations and the radical Islamic party Hizb ut-Tahrir.

Other charges are included only for the cases meeting at least one of the above criteria.

Each entry requires minimum identifying information.

The database includes only sentences on which we have at least minimal information: a defendant’s name, sentence details, or basic case description.

Any number of database parameters can be applied as filters. Please keep in mind that our data regarding a verdict is not always complete. Let us review some of these parameters.

The database excludes sentences for cases related to events that occurred in areas where martial law was imposed in 2022.

The «Period» field offers two modes for setting dates. In the default mode, you can select a specific year or a combination of year and month. Click the calendar icon to switch modes and set an exact date range with specific start and end dates.

The «Type of crime» field follows the classification of acts adopted by SOVA Center:

· «Violence» — violent crimes against a person;

· «Vandalism» — crimes directed at physical objects, not only those qualified under the article «Vandalism» of the Criminal Code;

· «Organization» — criminalized participation in or support/funding of the above associations;

· «Public statements» — the public speech as indicated above;

· «Other» — other acts.

«Hate motive recognized» means that a court formally recognized this motive as a qualifying feature or aggravating circumstance.

In the «Article» field, you can select the article of the Criminal Code, its part, or a specific paragraph. Please note our notation format: in the drop-down list of Criminal Code articles, parts and paragraphs are separated by dots (e.g., Article 282 Part 2 (b) appears as «282.2.b»). Inserted articles, which have superscript numbers in the Criminal Code, are written with hyphens (e.g., Article 282² appears as «282-2»). The same hyphen format applies to inserted parts of articles (e.g., Part 1¹ of Article 282² appears as «282-2.1-1»).

The «Appropriateness» parameter can take on the following values:

· «Yes» — if, in our opinion, the act involved xenophobia and generally deserved the sanctions imposed;

· «No» — if we believe that the act did not deserve criminal prosecution;

· «Other» — if a court issued a decision that could be appropriate but unrelated to countering xenophobia;

· «Not sure» — if we cannot choose between the above values;

· «Don’t know» — if we lack adequate data for making our assessment.

This classification system was implemented in 2018. Before that, we defaulted to «No» in most cases where «Yes» wasn’t warranted (though some entries were later updated retroactively). Among all classification options, only the «No» value for appropriateness has maintained consistent usage since before 2018.

Starting in 2023, a single case may receive different appropriateness ratings for different charges or episodes. For instance, we may consider prosecution appropriate under one article but inappropriate under another. In such cases, the same verdict or defendant may appear multiple times in our database.

Possible court decisions (acquit, impose penalties, release from criminal liability, etc.), and types of basic and additional penalties can be selected from the suggested drop-down lists. However, we obtain data on additional punishments less often than on principal ones.

You can customize the rows and columns to display results in a table format, with any filter parameters available as options.

Rows and columns can represent any filter parameters as well as the «Penalty Size» parameter (helpful, if the chosen filter includes a certain type of penalty).

The penalty size is measured in units that correspond to each penalty type. For example, fines are shown in thousands of rubles, mandatory labor in days, etc.

You can also select whether the table should display the number of defendants (default) or the number of sentences.

A more advanced option is to choose «Defendants (non-strict filter).» This option is useful if you apply one of the following three case parameters as a filter: CC article, type of crime, or appropriateness — and then use the same parameter as a row or column. For example, if you filter by Article «205-2» and set «Articles» as a table row, you can see which other CC articles appeared in the same sentences. The resulting report may list the same defendant multiple times, appearing in rows for Article 205.2 CC (separately for each part), as well as in rows for other articles if they were also convicted under those.

Each number in the table is clickable, as every database entry links to a news item on the site that provides details on the corresponding case. However, only news items assigned to one of our three sections — «Russian Nationalism and Xenophobia,» «Misuse of Anti-Extremism,» or «Religion in Secular Society» — are available to site visitors. The database includes sentences that meet the above criteria but do not fall under any of these sections, and news about these sentences is not published. Consequently, table entries may show a higher number of sentences/defendants than the news items displayed below the table when you click on the corresponding cell value.