A court in Moscow found 12 people guilty of murder, inciting racial hatred, attempted terrorism and participation in extremism. At least one attack was filmed and posted on the internet. Five members of the outlawed Nationalist Socialist Society, a neo-Nazi gang, were sentenced to life in prison for the racially motivated murders of 27 people. Several other members of the gang were given jail terms of up to 23 years. The gang targeted and pursued people in Moscow who were or appeared to be from Central and South East Asia, Africa or the Caucasus region and brutally attacked them.
Human Rights Watch reported the physical assault of a prominent Russian human rights activist of Uzbek origin working for the Moscow-based Memorial Human Rights Center, repeated threats against members of the Anti-Discrimination Center Memorial in St. Petersburg and the murder of a leading newspaper columnist who was covering human rights abuses. The Observatory for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders (OPHRD) reported repeated threats against the head of the Novorossiysk Human Rights Committee and his family, leading to their leaving the region.
The SOVA Center for Information and Analysis reported 22 murders, including those of ten migrants from Central Asia and six people from the Caucasus; 128 physical assaults, including of 25 migrants from Central Asia and 14 people from the Caucasus; one attack by a group; one attack with explosives; and two attempted attacks with explosives, including against a Chinese restaurant; one arson attack; one case of incitement to violence; and one threat.
The SOVA Center for Information and Analysis reported one physical assault, 13 cases of damage to property and one case of arson. The Moscow Bureau for Human Rights reported one case of graffiti against a cemetery. The Kantor Center reported three cases of graffiti, including two on cemeteries and one on a Jewish community centre; one case of property damage against a cemetery in Petrozavodsk; and one case of arson against a synagogue in Moscow.
A World Without Nazism reported one case of desecration that involved throwing pigs’ heads at a monument.
ILGA-Europe reported several physical assaults, one of which involved serious injuries, at LGBT events in Moscow and St. Petersburg. The Russian LGBT Network reported 14 physical assaults, four of which involved serious injury, two of which involved group attacks and one of which involved a knife; seven cases of threats, including one involving a bomb threat; one robbery; two murders; and one case of extortion. The victims were all gay men, with the exception of one lesbian.
The SOVA Center for Information and Analysis reported 27 physical assaults, including 22 against Jehovah’s Witnesses, three against Mormon missionaries, one against an Orthodox priest and one against a man who was mistakenly believed to be an Orthodox priest; 34 cases of damage to property, including against 16 properties owned by Jehovah’s Witnesses, one by Hare Krishna, 12 by Orthodox Christians, four by Protestants and one by Pagans; and four cases of arson, including three Orthodox churches and one Protestant site.
A World Without Nazism reported one case of arson targeting a place of worship owned by Jehovah’s Witnesses, which was occupied by 60 people at the time of the attack, and, in a connected incident, one case of damage to a car.
UNHCR in Russia coordinated and contributed to a number of activities related to its commitment to “reduce the level of xenophobic attitudes, frequent manifestations of xenophobia and migrant-phobia in Russian society, especially among youth”. These included contributing to an international/regional seminar “Towards a Coherent National Policy to Prevent and Combat Racial Discrimination and Related Intolerance: Developing and Implementing National Action Plans”, coordinating a set of eight programmes devoted to tolerance issues entitled, “New Place of Residence” on the UNHCR sponsored, nationwide channel Radio of Russia, and working with a local NGO to award diplomas for the best project on tolerance relating to refugees and migrants at a regular international competition: “Dialogue – Road to Understanding”.
The Holy See reported 11 cases of vandalism, eight of which targeted property associated with Russian Orthodoxy and three of which targeted Protestant sites.