The following is our monthly review of instances of xenophobia and radical nationalism, along with any government countermeasures, for May 2024.

In May 2024, we recorded some 51 hate-motivated attacks. Judging by videos that appeared in far-right Telegram channels, the week from May 6 to 12 broke records in terms of the number of incidents since the beginning of the year. Most attacks were dedicated to May 5, a day that the Russian far-right calls the "the day of hatred and revenge," and timed to coincide with 40 days since the death of well-known neo-Nazi Maxim Bazylev (Adolf). Some videos from this month were dedicated to the memory of another cult hero for the far-right, Dmitry Borovikov (the leader of the St. Petersburg neo-Nazi group Militant Terrorist Organization, who was shot dead during arrest in the spring of 2006). In total, since the beginning of 2024, we have learned of 123 hate-motivated attacks. In addition, we have information about three attempted murders. These figures already exceed the figures for 2023 in its entirety.

We learned of only one act of xenophobic vandalism, committed in May. Since the beginning of 2024 in total, we have recorded eight such acts.

On May 2, Society.Future (Obshchestvo.Budushchee, OB) movement held an action called "Remember Odessa." In some cities, members of Eduard Limonov's Other Russia joined. In Moscow, because the Kremlin's environs were blocked by military equipment in preparation for the Victory Day parade, flowers were laid in a new location at a makeshift memorial on Varvarka Street. Thirty-five people from OB and Other Russia gathered for the action. In St. Petersburg, 13 Other Russia activists laid flowers at the Odessa memorial plate on the territory of the Monument to the Defenders of Leningrad. The campaign took place in at least 20 other Russian cities, but judging by the photographs, it did not gather more than 10 people in any of them.

The Movement of Nationalists once again held its traditional action Russian Mayday, in an online format. The conference focused on the organizations’ socio-economic program.

The Russian Community (Russkaya Obshchina, RO) group continued its activities in the field of “combating blasphemy.” The group’s latest indignation was caused by the presence at the Starcon cosplay and fantasy festival of a stand “with openly blasphemous exhibits, where images of the Virgin Mary and other Christian symbols were used in a deliberately provocative style.” On May 4, RO members reported this to law enforcement agencies, and soon an investigator arrived at the exhibition and confiscated the exhibits.

Russian Community representatives were also drawn to the products of a certain “Ezotericist’s Shop” store on the Ozon online marketplace. They filed a complaint with the Investigative Committee and the prosecutor's office, accusing the store owner of Satanism and demanding that a criminal case be opened against him under Article 148 of the Criminal Code ("insulting the feelings of believers").

Aside from that, the Russian Community continued its anti-migrant raid activity. In Pushkino and Shchyolkovo, its activists participated in the inspection of the Ozon logistics center; while in Samara and Obninsk, activists participated side by side with police and Rosgvardia in raids to identify illegal migrants. The community members did not limit themselves to hunting migrants: in Yekaterinburg, they participated in a nighttime police raid and held conversations with drunk people and fans of loud music. In Gus-Khrustalny, they visited the city cemetery, “taking control” of the Eternal Flame, the Alley of Glory, and the Common Grave.

We learned of only one May conviction for a violent crime motivated by hatred. There was also information about one new criminal case, against two people, opened in May for xenophobic violence.

Since the beginning of the year, we have learned of seven convictions on the basis of xenophobic violence, handed down against twenty individuals; and of five convictions, of the same number of people, on the basis of xenophobic vandalism.

With respect to May only, we recorded 12 criminal convictions, of the same number of people, on the basis of aggressive public statements. They include:

- Eight people convicted under Article 205.2 of the Criminal Code (CC) (public calls to terrorist activity). Generally, the rulings were connected to social media publications that expressed general approval of the arson of draft offices or of the Kremlin (the latter, by Molotov cocktail). One person was sanctioned for shouting calls for armed rebellion from his balcony.

- A resident of Chelyabinsk was convicted under Article 280 CC (public calls to extremist activity) for online publications expressing support for the banned Freedom of Russia Legion.

- One person was convicted under Part 1 of Article 282.4 CC (repeated propaganda or public demonstration of Nazi symbols) for the demonstration, on the street, of a Nazi tattoo.

- Two people were convicted under Article 354.1 CC (rehabilitation of Nazism): one (an inmate) for expressing an “approving assessment” of the extermination of “Jewish prisoners of Sobibor in gas chambers by the Nazis” in his cell; and the other for publishing certain comments denying facts established by the verdict of the Nuremberg Tribunal, and images with “signs of expressing a contemptuous and negative attitude toward the day of military glory of Russia and the memory of the defenders of the Fatherland.”

Seven people were sentenced to imprisonment, one to a suspended sentence; two were fined; one was sentenced to correctional labor; and one was sentenced to compulsory labor.

Five of the seven sentenced to imprisonment were convicted under a combination of other articles of the Criminal Code – or were already in prison. In May, two people were jailed “for words only,” without any circumstances known to us that would have led to imprisonment. One of them was the aforementioned 58-year-old resident of Sevastopol, sentenced to one and a half years in prison for shouting slogans from a balcony. The second was Andrei Boyarshinov, the administrator of the chats “ProtestChat | Kazan” and “Protest Kazan — NoWar,” who was sentenced in Kazan under Part 2 of Article 205.2 СС to five years in a general-regime penal colony. The reason for his prosecution was three publications: one of them approved the actions of a Muscovite who threw Molotov cocktails towards the Kremlin wall and scattered anti-war leaflets; another – the arson of military registration and enlistment offices in the Moscow region; and the third was about a businessman who announced a reward of $1 million for officers “who detain or kill Russian President Vladimir Putin.”

In May, we received information about 12 new criminal cases brought against 12 people for public statements.

Since the beginning of this year, we have learned of some 90 court rulings, convicting 92 people, on the basis of aggressive public statements.

In May, we recorded two such convictions, against two people for their participation in the actions of the banned Ukrainian Right Sector, as well as about a new criminal case over participation in the actions of the banned Ukrainian Azov Battalion.

In total, since the beginning of the year, we have learned of 22 sentences issued against 42 people for involvement in extremist and terrorist communities and organizations.

According to our monitoring, three people were fined in May under Article 20.29 of the Code of Administrative Code (CAO) (production and distribution of extremist materials) for posting songs, popular with the Russian ultra-right, on VKontakte (“Russian Soldier” by the Gangs of Moscow, “Skinheads, Get a Black” by Gipothalamus), and a song by the bard of the Chechen armed resistance Timur Mutsuraev, “Prison of Tribes, Executioner-Empire.” Since the beginning of the year, we have learned of 36 people fined for distributing materials listed in the Federal List of Extremist Materials.

We also learned of 24 people sanctioned in May under Article 20.3 CAO (propaganda and public display of prohibited symbols). Most were punished for posting materials with Nazi symbols and symbols of banned organizations on VKontakte, Odnoklassniki, Telegram and YouTube — the Ukrainian Right Sector, the Russian Volunteer Corps (RDK), the Freedom of Russia Legion, or the Islamic State, Caucasus Emirate, Al-Qaeda, and Taliban. Six people were punished for offline actions: one drew a swastika on her apartment door, another threw a fascist salute and shouted a Nazi greeting on the street, and four (two of whom were prisoners in prison colonies) showed others their swastika tattoos. Eight (out of 24) were placed under administrative arrest, while the rest were fined. In total, since the beginning of the year, we have learned of 234 cases of punishments for such violations.

We have information about six people punished in May for aggressive statements under Article 20.3.1 CAO (incitement to hatred). All of them were held accountable for posting xenophobic statements on social networks (VKontakte, DrugVokrug, Odnoklassniki, Telegram) directed against people from Central Asia, natives of the Caucasus, Jews, etc. One person was sentenced to community service, and the rest were fined. Since the beginning of the year, we have learned of 136 such court decisions.

The Federal List of Extremist Materials was updated once during the month, on May 16, to account for new entries 5425 and 5426. These are again Ukrainian-language materials: the books by Ukrainian journalist Pavlo Romanyuk, The Gospel from Mary. Prologue to the Independence of Ukraine, and the memoirs from World War II by Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA) fighter and then prisoner of war Vasyl Novorynsky, On the Edge of Eternal Pain.

On May 3, the movement “I/WE Sergei Furgal” was added to the Federal List of Extremist Organizations under item 107, recognized as extremist by the decision of the Khabarovsk Regional Court on February 22, 2024. We consider this decision to be improper.