Russian Nationalism and Xenophobia in May 2025

Настоящий материал (информация) произведен и (или) распространен иностранным агентом Исследовательский центр «Сова» либо касается деятельности иностранного агента Исследовательский центр «Сова».

The following is our monthly review of instances of xenophobia and radical nationalism, along with any government countermeasures, for May 2025.

In May 2025, we learned of nine people who suffered in hate-motivated attacks, one of whom was killed. Some of the attacks were timed to coincide with May 5, the "Day of Rage". 

A raid by the "Russian Community" on May 3, in which activists broke into an apartment building in Vsevolozhsk, Leningrad Region, received widespread media coverage. As a result, a fire broke out in the apartment, killing Armenian-born Gor Hovakimyan, while a 24-year-old girl was hospitalized after jumping out of a window to escape.

Since the beginning of 2025, we have recorded 118 hate-motivated attacks.

We also learned of five instances of xenophobically-motivated vandalism committed in May. On May 29 in Sochi, an intruder, threatening a watchman with a hammer, broke down the gate, entered the yard of the local synagogue and pelted the building with stones, filming it on his phone.

So far this, year, we have recorded 27 acts of xenophobic vandalism.

The ultra-right continued their traditional vigilante activities during this May.

The "Russian Community" conducted its own raids, and also participated in those conducted by police on migrant hostels and points of sale.

The "Call of the People" continued its campaign of writing complaints and appeals to government agencies. In part, activists from the group demanded that a prosecutor ban a lecture by Yan Rachinsky, co-chairman of Moscow Memorial, at the Yeltsin Center as part of the conference "The History of Stalinism" scheduled for June 19–22.

Meanwhile, the "Forty Forties" movement has also been submitting complaints: as a result of an appeal by the group, on May 12, the magistrate court of judicial precinct No. 374 of the Tagansky district of Moscow found Anna Avdeeva, the owner of the Witch’s Way store, guilty of deliberately desecrating objects of religious veneration through the sale of certain "blasphemous" goods. Those goods, which were the subject of the complaint, were withdrawn from sale.

On May 1, the "Movement of Nationalists" ran its traditional agitation raids, placing stickers and posters around the Moscow and Pskov regions and the Altai, while also holding its seventh annual Mayday online conference.

In May 2025 we recorded three rulings, delivered against 11 people, on the basis of xenophobic violence.In Krasnoyarsk, two ultra-right activists were sentenced to prison time for a 2024 attack on antifascists. In the Stavropol Krai, courts made another two rulings against participants in the mass rioting at the airport in Makhachkala, with defendants receiving sentences ranging from eight to ten years. A total of 110 people have been convicted in cases arising out of the airport riots to date.

There were also two criminal cases against five people, initiated in May on the basis of hate-motivated attacks. Among them is a case against three teenagers in Yoshkar-Ola, one of whom, according to the investigation, joined a terrorist organization banned in Russia, the "Maniacs Killing Cult" (MKU); they attacked several foreigners and a local resident in the spring of 2024 and set fire to a car.

Since the beginning of the year, by our data, there have been a total of 22 convictions against 100 people for xenophobically motivated violence, and five convictions against five people for xenophobic vandalism; in one other case, the defendant was exonerated and sent for compulsory psychiatric treatment.

In May, we noted nine convictions for involvement in extremist communities and organizations against 16 people. These convictions included charges of involvement in the Artpodgotovka movement, the "Freedom of Russia" Legion (LSR), Russian Volunteer Corps (RDK) and Azov Battalion, as well as "Prisoners’ Criminal Unity" (AUE).

Information came to light in May about three new criminal cases initiated against nine individuals on the basis of participation in the activities of banned organizations — these were the MKU, RDK and one chapter of the "Citizens of the USSR."

Since the beginning of the year, we have recorded 40 such rulings against 71 people, excluding those we found to be patently improper.

We have further information about 26 rulings, handed down in May on the basis of aggressive public statements, against 28 people (with one case dismissed):

— Seven people were convicted under Article 205.2 Part of the Criminal Code (CC) (calls for, or justification of, terrorist acts) for posting a video clip featuring a call to bomb trains and airports, for comments approving of acts of the LSR and RDK, support for assaults on the city of Belgorod, and for the terrorist attack on Crocus City Hall in Moscow.

— Four people were convicted under Article 280 CC (public calls for extremist acts) for posts calling for xenophobic violence, included towards ethnic Russians in connection with the Special Military Operation, as well as towards employees of the law enforcement agencies.

— Three people were sanctioned under a combination of the two articles over online calls for violent acts against law enforcement officers and the Russian state in general. One of them was referred to as an "adherent of the ideology of radical Islam," and was convicted for posting certain materials "that justified terrorists" and called for "extremism against Russian citizens."

— Two people were convicted under Article 282 CC (incitement to violence): Petro Vrublevskij, the former consul of Ukraine to the Republic of Kazakhstan, for "a statement made in an interview, forming a contemptuous, hostile attitude towards Russian citizens," as well as the actor Andrei Khabarov, for unspecific statements in relation to the Special Military Operation.

— Four people (three of them being colony inmates) were convicted under Article 282.4 Part 1 (repeated demonstration of banned symbols) for showing their own tattoos featuring Nazi and AUE symbols.

—One person was convicted under Article 354.1 Part 3 CC (rehabilitation of Nazism) for tearing down, and throwing to the ground, fifteen red flags hung on the streets of Karabudakhkent (Dagestan) in connection with Victory Day.

—The others were punished under Article 205.2 Part 2 CC in combination with various other articles. Thus, a supporter of "Artpodgotovka," who agitated in Telegram for joining the movement, was also convicted under paragraph "c" of Article 280.4 Part 2 CC (public calls to carry out activities directed against the security of the state) and Article 205.5 Part 2 CC for urging a supporter to join the movement; an anarchist who threw a Molotov cocktail into a conscription office and gave an interview to the program "Khodorkovsky LIVE" was charged under Article 205 CC (terrorist acts) and paragraph "e" of Article 207.3 Part 2 CC ("fakes" about the Russian Army motivated by hatred); while an attempt to join the RDK led to charges also under Articles 275 and 205.5 CC in combination with Article 30 Part 1(preparation for state treason and participation in a terrorist organization).

Nineteen of the 28 individuals were sentenced to prison time; four weregiven suspended prison terms; one was fined; two were sentenced to corrective labor; one to compulsory labor; and we have not been able to confirm the punishment issued in the last case.

In the absence of information about the circumstances contributing to the imposition of prison time (we mean for statements in conjunction with other articles of the Criminal Code, or to those who are already in prison, on probation, or released on parole), eight people were sentenced to such a punishment in May.

Meanwhile, we know of 16 new criminal cases initiated in May, against the same number of people, on the basis of aggressive public statements.

This year to date, we have recorded 151 convictions, of 153 individuals, for such statements.

We also noted 16 court decisions penalizing aggressive statements under Article 20.3.1 of the Code of Administrative Offenses (incitement to hatred). Seven people were punished for xenophobic statements made on VKontakte, Telegram, WhatsApp and unnamed social networks about natives of the Caucasus, Roma, Russians, ministers of the Moscow Patriarchate, police officers, supporters of Vladimir Putin, and elderly people. Two people were punished for offline acts: xenophobic insults to a neighbor of non-Slavic origin during a public conflict over smoking on a balcony, and shouting out the window calling for the murder of Russians over the annexation of Crimea. Three were placed under administrative arrest, two were sentenced tocommunity service, and the remaining 11 were fined.

We know of 173 such rulings in 2025 to date.

Two people were fined in May under Article 20.29 of the Code of Administrative Offenses (production and distribution of extremist materials) for the song "I want cops to..." (item 3610 of the Federal List of Extremist Materials) posted on VKontakte, and a photo of a T-shirt with the inscription "T.O.Y.S." (item 3610 of the Federal List of Extremist Materials) — this was the name of a football fan group recognized as extremist back in 2017 (item 61 of the list of extremist organizations).

In total this year, we have recorded 36 instances of sanctioning over distribution of materials included in the Federal List of Extremist Materials.

The list itself was updated four times (on May 7, 13, 15 and 22) to account for new entries 5463–5468. New items included: the book Notes of a Bashkir Nationalist — Kuk Bure by Ruslan Gabbasov; the video "People and Power" — an interview with Igor Danilov, founder of the AllatRa movement, on the nature of power; a song in the Ukrainian language directed against the Russian Army; and three songs with criminal themes that law enforcement agencies associate with AUE.