The following is our monthly review of instances of xenophobia and radical nationalism, along with any government countermeasures, for January 2022.

So far, we are not aware of any hate crimes committed during January 2022 in Russia.

We would note one racist action on the territory of Moscow State University of Civil Engineering. In a video circulated online, young people can be seen harassing Black students, throwing snowballs at them, "awarding" them bananas as "gifts" and insulting them generally.

Public nationalist activity was low in January. The few attempts by ultra-right Telegram channels to add an ethnic element to criminal incidents in the news were unsuccessful.

We are not aware of any sentences (*) issued in January for violent crimes, in which the court marked the hate motive. However we recorded one conviction, under Part 2 of Article 214 of the Criminal Code (vandalism motivated by hatred) in Novomoskovsk. Two schoolboys were charged on the basis of graffiti featuring Nazi symbols, which they painted onto a garage and recorded on video. They were sentenced to 10 months restriction of liberty and a year of disciplinary education.

Meanwhile, there were eight convictions, of as many people, on the basis of xenophobic statements in January. Five of these individuals were charged under Article 280 of the Criminal Code (public calls to extremist activity) over online publications (including on Instagram and YouTube). The publications were video clips and other materials calling for xenophobic violence or attacks on government officials and law enforcement.

Two individuals were convicted under Article 282 of the Criminal Code (incitement to hatred). One Kazan resident received a suspended sentence over the social media publication of materials directed against representatives of certain ethnic groups and employees of the security services. In Vladivostok, a native of Central Asia was sentenced to three years and four months in a penal colony for verbally insulting a local resident.

Another individual, a soldier in the Smolensk Region, was convicted under Article 205.2 of the Criminal Code (public propaganda of terrorism) over the dissemination on Telegram of audio and video files "aimed at forming convictions as to the attractiveness of the ideology of terrorism, and its permissibility" among fellow service members.

The Federal List of Extremist Materials was updated once, on January 12, in order to account for new entries 5254–5256. These consist of a few issues of the Al-Waie Magazine by Hizb ut-Tahrir Islamist party which is banned in Russia as terrorist, an AUE (criminal subculture) audio recording, and a Jehovah's Witnesses app.

We are also aware that four individuals were sanctioned under Article 20.29 of the Code of Administrative Offenses (manufacture and dissemination of banned materials) for sharing materials included in the Federal List of Extremist Materials on social media. In the Krasnodar Krai, a local environmental activist was jailed for five days after sharing the song "Smoke" by the ultra-right band Grot (entry 3045) on social media. Residents of Udmurtia and Mari El were fined over the publication of some other banned materials on social media.

No fewer than eight individuals were sanctioned under Article 20.3 of the Code of Administrative Offenses (propaganda and public demonstration of Nazi symbols and symbols of banned organizations). Four of them – prisoners in colonies in the Pskov and Tver regions and the Zabaikalsky Krai – demonstrated their own Nazi tattoos to other inmates. The others posted Nazi symbols and symbols of other banned organizations (al-Qaida, the Taliban and the Muslim Brotherhood) on social media.

Russian courts delivered no fewer than six rulings on the basis of Article 20.3.1 of the Code of Administrative Offenses (incitement to national hatred), in accordance with the contents of Part 1 of Article 282 of the Criminal Code, over the social media publication of various xenophobic posts and materials based on ethnic hatred as well as those directed against Christians and denigrating women.

The annual national action in commemoration of advocate Stanislav Markelov and journalist Anastasia Baburova, who were murdered by Nazis in Central Moscow in 2009, was held on January 19 in Moscow, with participants laying flowers at the site of the murders. As in the previous year, city authorities denied organizers permission to hold the action, citing Covid restrictions. At the site, on Prechistenka Street, participants built a temporary memorial to Markelov and Baburova with flowers and candles. That evening, there was an antifascist concert at the Sakharov Center featuring the music bands Arkady Kots, Alerta and Electric Partisans. The action went without incident, if not counting a neo-Nazi stunt three days later: on January 22, vandals wrote insults on the portraits of Markelov and Baburova, including words of thanks to Nikita Tikhonov and Yevgenia Khasis, former members of the neo-Nazi group BORN, who were convicted for the murders of Markelov and Baburova in May 2011.

Two antifascist actions were held on January 19 in St. Petersburg. In the morning, antifascists hung a banner reading "To Remember Means to Fight!" from a roof on Ligovsky Prospect. In the evening, about 20 people gathered at the Solovetsky Stone in memoriam to murdered antifascists. Flowers were laid and candles lit.

Additional memorial events were held on January 19 in Yekaterinburg, Krasnoyarsk, Murmansk, Novosibirsk, Penza, Tomsk, Ufa, and also in Lithuania and Ukraine.

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(*) Data about criminal and administrative cases are reported without reference to rulings that we consider to be patently improper.