Moscow Makes a Mockery of Hate-speech Laws

Human rights activists have regularly accused the Russian government of doing little to combat extremist nationalism. Four criminal cases last month have unfortunately bolstered the argument that the Kremlin's struggle against extremism bears more resemblance to a public relations campaign than to a serious effort to reduce the myriad inter-ethnic tensions that threaten Russia's security. In Russia, the incitement of ethnic and religious hatred is illegal under Article 282 of the criminal code. During the Soviet period, anti-incitement laws were often used to persecute religious and nationalist dissidents. In the 1990s, Article 282 was kept on the books despite free speech concerns, partially because of the contemporaneous wars in Yugoslavia and their perceived implications for Russia. The best-known recent Article 282-related case took place in Volgograd in February. In a bizarre echo of the Danish cartoon controversy, the local branch of the United Russia party successfully demanded a criminal investigation of the local newspaper Gorodskie Vesti for inciting religious hatred. The paper had printed a cartoon depicting Jesus, Moses, Muhammad and Buddha watching a televised report of cartoon-related riots, accompanied by the words "We did not teach them that." The Kremlin's party United Russia — which at the time was in the process of promoting an "anti-fascist pact" with other political parties including, oddly enough, ultra-nationalist Vladimir Zhirinovsky's party — decided to target Gorodskie Vesti. The fact that local Russian Orthodox, Jewish, Muslim and Buddhist leaders all publicly stated that the cartoon did not incite inter-religious hatred did not deter local prosecutors. Indeed, the paper was shut down before the investigation came anywhere near to being concluded.