Anti-Extremism Legislation in Putin’s Russia

This issue of the Statutes & Decisions contains the English-language translation of three articles about the evolution of the hate speech legislation, which the Russia’s authorities label as “anti-extremism” legislation and increasingly use against any anti-regime activity. The first article is written by Alexander Verkhovsky, the head of the Moscow-based SOVA Center. Drawing on the careful analysis of legislative changes and court decisions, he explores how this legislation – in both the Code of Administrative Offenses and in the Criminal Code – has been both expanding and shrinking in post-Soviet Russia, how it has been unevenly applied by the law-enforcement agencies and the courts, and how it generates demand for forensic examination of allegedly extremist statements without improving the quality of forensic examination. The second article, written by Olga Sibireva from the SOVA Center, explains how Russia’s authorities apply the Article 282.2 of the Criminal Code (on “organizing the activities of an extremist organization”) to punish representatives of undesirable religious associations, resulting in the violation of the freedom of religion. Finally, in the third article Dmitry Dubrovskiy from the Saint-Petersburg’s Center for Independent social Research, analyzes how the post-Soviet Russian state took over the control over forensic examination of hate speech. This forensic examination was created in the mid-1990s as a collaboration between civil society, the liberal academic community, and the state. However, in the mid-2000s, the Russian state transferred this responsibility to the loyal “experts.” They, in turn, facilitate the expansion of the unjust application of anti-extremism legislation by offering an analysis of alleged hate speech statements that confirms the wishes of state investigators and serves as the foundation for courts in penalizing those who exercise their freedom of speech.