In September 2024, we have information about 16 people seriously beaten in hate-motivated attacks. One person was killed: in Tula, far-right teenagers beat a gay man to death on a fake date in his apartment. We learned about most of the attacks from videos posted on far-right Telegram channels. These videos show footage of violent attacks on Central Asians, Caucasians, Roma, homeless and drunk people, or others whom the far-right calls “biowaste” and considers to be “a disgrace to the white race.”

In September, we learned of several spray can attacks on children. A video posted on September 4 in a Telegram channel shows a far-right activist approaching two girls of “non-Slavic appearance” playing in a sandbox on a playground and spraying them with gas from a can while calling them “dirty non-Russian children.” On September 6, a video was published of a far-right activist using spray against a woman wearing a hijab with two children and a stroller. In another video, posted on the same day, a 12-year-old girl with “non-Slavic appearance” becomes a victim of a spray can attack by the far-right. A video from September 17 shows a teenager approaching a woman with children, who is standing by the front door of a house, and spraying them with gas.

In total, we have learned of 192 victims of hate-motivated attacks in 2024.

We did not receive any reports of acts of xenophobic vandalism in September. In total, we have recorded 18 such acts since the beginning of 2024.

The public activity of the far-right in September was low.

On September 12, some nationalists took part in a large-scale procession in St. Petersburg with the participation of Patriarch Kirill. Cossacks from nationalist movements, including the Russian Community (Russkaya Obschina), marched along Nevsky Prospect to the Alexander Nevsky Lavra carrying flags, symbols and icons and chanting “We are Russians, God is with us!” and “Russians, forward!”.

Activists of the Russian Community continued their traditional anti-migrant raids.

The “fight against blasphemy” also continued. For example, in St. Petersburg, the Russian Community initiated a raid on a private Inferno Ball party at the Trezzini Palace Hotel. Together with law enforcement officers, the activists entered the room and filmed the guests. The party was dissolved, although none of the guests were detained and no cases filed.

The Sorok Sorokov movement and some other groups filed appeals with the Investigative Committee demanding criminal prosecution under Article 148 of the Criminal Code (CC) (public actions expressing obvious disrespect for society and committed to insult the religious feelings of believers) of the blogger Artemy Lebedev for posting online “blasphemous images”of the iconic Virgin of Tenderness and Jesus Christ Almighty. The complainants were outraged, for example, by the fact that in the posted image, the Virgin is holding a “joint” and its smoke forms a halo. These are not the first claims of the SorokSorokovmovementagainst Lebedev.

Vladislav Pozdnyakov called for the closure of the Find Banksy exhibition at VDNKh in Moscow, and the Russian Community and others called for the cancellation of singer Lolita's concerts in Rostov-on-Don; the concerts were indeed canceled.

On September 28 and 29, the Movement of Nationalists, the Russian Liberation Front “Pamyat,”supporters of the Russian Councils, the Conservative Youth Union, and the NashaNatsiya (Our Nation) Telegram channel held raids to mark the annual Victims of Ethnic Crime Remembrance Day. A total of 11 raids took place in Moscow and St. Petersburg, in the Leningrad, Moscow, Novosibirsk, Pskov, and Samara regions, and in Altai Krai. Participants pasted posters with the inscriptions “No to replacement of Russians” and “Putin flooded the country with ethnobandits. Migration policy kills.”

We are not aware of any sentences issued in September for hate-motivated violence.

It is worth noting the eight-year prison sentence handed down on September 16 in Yekaterinburg to Danil Fomin for the high-profile murder of François Njelassili, a graduate student of the Ural Federal University from Gabon, in August 2023. The lawyer of the victim's family insisted on qualifying the case under paragraph “m” Part 2 of Article 105 CC (murder motivated by ethnic hatred), but the hate motive was not included in the charges. At the sentencing, Fomin wore a T-shirt with an ultra-right brand logo; neo-Nazis were present in the courtroomand supported him during the hearings.

We know of at least one case on xenophobic violence filed against two people in September.

Since the beginning of the year, we have recorded 12 sentences for xenophobic violence against 32 people and six sentences for xenophobic vandalism against six people.

We have information of 25 convictions for aggressive public statements in September, against 25 people. They include:

— Six people convicted under Article 280 CC (public calls for extremist activity) for posting comments on social networks (mainly on VKontakte) and messengers calling for the extermination of Russians, certain unnamed people “singled out on the basis of nationality,” representatives of the legislative and executive authorities of Russia, law enforcement officials, the President, his entourage, members of the United Russia party, public employees in the spheres of administration, health care, education and defense, and employees of the Federal Security Service.

— Seven people convicted under Article 205.2 CC (public calls for terrorist activity or justification of such) for posting messages in social networks and messengers approving violence, including arson attacks on military recruitment centers, the bombing of the Crimean Bridge, and the murder of military correspondent VladlenTatarsky.

— Two people convicted under a combination of Article 280 and 205.2 CC for posting on social networks certain “messages of terrorist and extremist nature” and messages calling for “violent actions against certain social groups and nationalities in the Russian Federation.”

— A blogger from Maykop convicted under a combination of Article 280 and 148 CC for videos posted on her Goddess Tiamat YouTube channel claiming that churches around the world are burning because of spells and justifying a terrorist attack in Jerusalem on January 27, 2023.

— Six people convicted under Article 282.4 Part 1 CC (repeated propaganda or public display of Nazi symbols). Two of them were sentenced for repeated publication of Nazi symbols in social networks, one – for drawing a swastika on a car and publics with banned symbols on the Internet, and three prisoners of colonies – for repeated demonstration of banned Prisoners’ Criminal Unity (AUE) symbols.

— One person convicted under a combination of Article 205.2 and 282.4 CC of for actions unknown to us.

— Two people convicted under Article 354.1 CC (rehabilitation of Nazism) for posting on social networks a comment with “Nazi orientation” and an image with text “approving the crimes established by the verdict of the International Military Tribunal.”

12 people out of 25 were sentenced to imprisonment, six were given suspended sentences, five were fined, and two were sentenced to compulsory labor.

Some of these 12 people were convicted in conjunction with other articles of the Criminal Code or were already imprisoned. Seven people were imprisoned for their statements in the absence of circumstances known to us that could have led to imprisonment. Three of them were convicted for ethno-xenophobia, the others for statements targeting representatives of the authorities or the special military operation. One of these seven people was found guilty under Article 282.4, two under Article 280, two under Article 205.2, and two under the combination of Articles 205.2 and 280 CC.

In total, since the beginning of the year, we have recorded 197 convictions for aggressive public statements against 214 people.

In September, there were reports of 10 new criminal cases filed against 11 people for public statements.

In September, we learned of eight sentences against 16 people for participation in the activities of banned organizations such as M.K.U., Citizens of the USSR, AUE, ISIS, and unnamed Ukrainian organizations.

We recorded three new criminal cases filed in September against 20 individuals. In Krasnoyarsk, four young people were accused of participating in the activities of the neo-Nazi gang Sparta-88; in Bashkortostan, one person was accused of participating in the activities of Citizens of the USSR; in Kabardino-Balkaria, 15 people were accused of creating and participating in the activities of a community unknown to us for the “use of violent methods of persuasion of an unlimited number of persons” and planning “crimes motivated by religious hatred and enmity.”

Since the beginning of the year, we have recorded a total of 62 convictions against 98 people for involvement in extremist and terrorist communities and organizations, excluding inappropriate convictions.

We have information about only two people who were fined in September under Article 20.29 of the Administrative Code (CAO) (production and distribution of extremist materials) for sharing the popular Russian far-right movie “Romper Stomper” and the slogan “Russia for Russians” on VKontakte. In total, since the beginning of the year we have learned about 84 people fined for disseminating xenophobic materials from the Federal List of Extremist Materials.

We also learned about 49 court decisions issued in September under Article 20.3 CAO for public display of prohibited Nazi symbols or symbols of banned nationalist organizations. Seven people demonstrated their own tattoos with Nazi symbols. One person scratched swastikas and the numbers 14/88 on parked cars (six cases were filed against him). One person said a Nazi greeting when calling the 112 emergency number. One person offered Black Icon of Abar and Black Icon of Satan with the image of swastika for sale on the Esoterics Shop page of the Ozon marketplace (a criminal case under Article 148 CC was also initiated for the sale of the icons).The others posted various materials with Nazi symbols and symbols of Azov regiment on VKontakte, Odnoklassniki, and Instagram. In 28 cases (out of 49) an administrative arrest was imposed, in other cases a fine. In total, since the beginning of the year we have learned about 591 cases of imposing penalties for such offenses.

We have information about 10 people punished in September under Article 20.3.1 CAO (incitement to hatred) for posting aggressive statements in VKontakte, mass mailings in Telegram or WhatsApp of aggressive statements targeting natives of Central Asia and the Caucasus, Jews, Arabs, Ethiopians, law enforcement officers and soldiers of the Russian army. Among those punished in September was Alina Lushavina, a follower of the former head of the liquidated Volya party Svetlana Lada-Rus (Peunova). She was fined for sharing a video about the Jewish religious movement Chabad. Lushavina is also a defendant in a criminal case under Article 205.2 Part 2 CC.

One of the ten was given administrative arrest, two were sentenced to community service, and the rest were fined.

Since the beginning of the year we became aware of 280 court decisions issued under Article 20.3.1CAO for aggressive statements.

The Federal List of Extremist Materials was updated once, on September 13. Items 5441–5443 were added: a Ukrainian book and two Ukrainian songs, “Rise Belgorod!” (a parody of the song “Rise Donbass”) and “Orks” (about the Russian military).

Two items were added to the Federal List of Extremist Organizations in September. Under item 112, “an association whose members are: Poroshenko Petro Alekseevich, born 26.09.1965 in Bolgrad, Odessa region, Ukrainian SSR, Poroshenko AlekseiPetrovich, born 06.03.1985 in Kiev, Ukrainian SSR, Kazakov Oleg Leonidovich, born 31.05.1967 in St. Petersburg.” Under item 113, “the association, whose members are: Efimenko Konstantin Alekseevich, born 26.06.1975 in BilaTserkva, the Kiev region of Ukraine, Andreeva Elizaveta Nikolaevna, born 25.02.1980 in BilaTserkva, the Kiev region of Ukraine.”

In September, the following organizations were added to the list of organizations recognized as terrorist: the Jamaat community established in the correctional institution Penal Colony #7 (IK-7) of the Russian Federal Penitentiary Service for the Republic of Dagestan, the Dnipro-1 community (Dnipro-1 battalion, Dnipro-1 regiment), and a community established by Ukrainian intelligence officers operating in Energodar, Zaporizhzhya region.