Fear Statistics. Part 3: Extremism Cases
Since the start of the war in Ukraine, the number of cases under extremism articles has doubled.
"NeMoscow" continues its series of publications devoted to the operation of repressive law in Russia. We analyze judicial statistics on administrative and criminal cases—from military "fakes" and discrediting the army to cases of extremism, rehabilitation of Nazism, participation in undesirable organizations, and other offenses that are increasingly used to pressure and intimidate Russians. The goal is to show how these provisions are applied in practice, who is punished and for what, and what trends lie behind the sentences.
In this article, we analyze cases of "extremism." Under this label, the Russian state has lumped together radical groups, political and human rights organizations, and non-existent "international movements." The absurdity of law enforcement extends beyond the registry: people are fined and then sentenced to further prison terms for displaying tattoos in pretrial detention centers and penal colonies. Removing clothing in a bathhouse or appearing before prison staff with an image deemed extremist is enough to initiate a criminal case.
🔶 "NeMoskva" continues its series on repressive law. In this article, we examine criminal cases of "extremism" filed in Russian courts after February 24, 2022. Within this framework, the state includes both radical groups and political, human rights, and even fictitious "movements."
🔶 The material examines extremist cases under six articles of the Criminal Code: from public calls and incitement to hatred to participation in extremist organizations, financing, and repeated display of prohibited symbols.
🔶 Since the beginning of the war, the number of extremism cases filed in court has doubled: from 597 in 2022 to 1197 in 2025. The main increase was driven by cases involving the financing of extremism and the repeated display of banned symbols.
🔶 The largest number of such cases were in the Sverdlovsk and Rostov regions, Dagestan, and the Khabarovsk and Krasnoyarsk territories. Almost 40% of all cases involved public calls for extremist activity, most often involving online statements.
🔶 It's difficult to assess actual sentencing practices, as most sentences are unpublished. Available decisions under Article 280 most often include suspended sentences and fines, while sentences under articles on organizing extremist activity and symbols are significantly more frequent.
🔶 Cases against FBK supporters for donations have become a widespread trend: investigators are looking for payments made via Merchant ID, and charges are often based on transfers of several hundred rubles. Punishments range from large fines to actual imprisonment.
🔶 Harsh sentences are also linked to non-existent movements like AUE and LGBT. People are persecuted for subcultural symbols, tattoos, club activities, books, activism, and content.
For the analysis of this text, we used the forensic parser from the project "To be precise", which allows you to download the entire array of cases considered in Russian courts.
In this publication, we examine criminal cases filed in court since February 24, 2022. Since then, criminal prosecutions for speech, political activity, and participation in organizations deemed extremist have sharply increased in Russia.
As of June 19, 2026, list Ministry of Justice 142 Organizations and associations recognized as extremist. Of these, 29 were added to the list in 2024 and 2025. The registry includes a wide range of cases: alongside radical groups, it includes patently absurd constructs like the "international LGBT movement" or the "international Satanist movement," political and human rights organizations (the Anti-Corruption Foundation, OVD-Info), and individual families (the family of journalist Alexander Nevzorov is recognized as an "extremist association").
Extremist crimes are regulated by six articles of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation:
- Article 280 – public calls to carry out extremist activities;
- Article 282 – incitement of hatred or enmity, as well as humiliation of human dignity;
- Article 282.1 – organization of an extremist community;
- Article 282.2 — organizing the activities of an extremist organization and participation in the activities of such an organization;
- Article 282.3 – financing of extremist activities;
- Article 282.4 – repeated propaganda or public display of Nazi paraphernalia or symbols, or paraphernalia or symbols of extremist organizations.
Read also previous publications in the "Fear Statistics" series. Part 1: discrediting the armyPart 2: military "fakes"
Cases doubled
Dynamics
According to NeMoskva’s calculations, since the beginning of the war in Ukraine, the number of cases under all extremist articles filed in Russian courts has doubled – from 597 in 2022 to 1197 in 2025. In the first quarter of 2026, such cases were already received 349.
The increase is primarily due to a sharp increase in the number of cases of financing extremist organizations (from 13 in 2022 to 220 in 2025) and cases of repeated display of extremist symbols (from 2 to 206). Moreover, the last article appeared in the criminal code only in July 2022.
Distribution by region
If you add up the cases under all extremist articles, the leader in their number will be Sverdlovsk region: In this region, 238 cases have been filed with the courts since the beginning of the full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine.
Na vtorom meste — Rostov region (208 cases). The top five also included Dagestan (149 cases), Khabarovsk (129 cases) and Krasnoyarsk (111 cases) of the region.
The least “extremist” regions were the Chukotka Autonomous Okrug (7 cases in court during the war), the Voronezh Region (2 cases) and the Nenets Autonomous Okrug (1 case).
Distribution by articles
The most common cases brought to Russian courts were those involving public calls to commit extremist activity (Article 280 of the Russian Criminal Code), accounting for almost 40% of all cases. Almost all (93%) involved online statements.
Moreover, during the war, 912 cases under Article 282.2 of the Russian Criminal Code—on organizing the activities of an extremist organization or participating in it—reached the courts.
Punishments
Most of the verdicts in "extremism" cases are not published in the public domain.
So, out of 1416 cases Article 280 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation Court decisions are posted in only 59 cases, or 4%. This sample size does not allow for definitive conclusions about the article's application. Of the available decisions, 31 sentences involved suspended sentences, while 11 defendants received actual prison terms, mostly ranging from 1 to 3 years. In the remaining cases, the court imposed fines. Several cases were returned to the prosecutor or investigator. In one case, the case was dismissed due to the defendant's "active repentance."
Thus, in October 2025, the Kyiv court annexed Simferopol Endured sentence for the assistant head of the personnel department of military unit 87714 Vladislav TyapninIn the comments section of the Telegram channel "Kyiv INFO? Ukraine News," he posted the messages "Handsome! Beat this f*ck!" and "Beat the occupation f*cks." The court found that Tyapnin was thus calling for "extremist activity against members of the Russian army." He was found guilty of two counts and fined a total of 30 rubles.
On Article 282 and related provisions Only 474 sentences out of 2030 that have reached court since the beginning of the war in Ukraine are available. Suspended sentences are also common, but actual prison terms are significantly more common, especially for offenses related to organizing extremist activity (Article 282.2) and displaying prohibited symbols (Article 282.4).
FBK
One of the most high-profile and widespread extremism trials in Russia was the case against supporters of the Anti-Corruption Foundation. The FBK and Alexei Navalny's regional headquarters recognized extremist organizations in June 2021.
The first cases of extremism financing involving donations sent to the Foundation emerged in August 2022. In April 2026, Mediazona reportedA total of 225 similar cases have already been opened in 64 regions of Russia, from the Kaliningrad to Sakhalin Oblasts. The largest number of cases is in Moscow (25), followed by the Sverdlovsk (17) and Kaliningrad (13) Oblasts.
187 cases regarding donations to the FBK were filed in court, of which 131 the case is in 2025
Investigators are searching for FBK donations using an internal payment code—the Merchant ID. This is the merchant's or recipient's service number in the payment system: the user usually doesn't see it, but the bank does. According to Mediazona, after the organization switched to the Stripe payment system, this code allowed law enforcement to link transfers to the foundation's donation form, even if "FBK" wasn't explicitly listed on the bank statement.
NeMoskva managed to find 33 publicly available verdicts in cases involving funding of the Anti-Corruption Foundation. They mostly involve donations of several hundred, sometimes several thousand, rubles. Twenty-three defendants were sentenced to fines ranging from 40,000 to 650,000 rubles.
300-350 thousand rubles. — This is the type of fine the court has generally awarded for donations to the FBK.
At least two defendants were sentenced to actual imprisonment.
Thus, in December 2024, the Kaliningrad court sentenced Russians Pavel Natsarenus to eight months in prison for making a monthly donation of 200 rubles to the Anti-Corruption Foundation. According to the verdict, he did this after watching video On Alexei Navalny's YouTube channel, "We Continue, and We Need Your Help." Navalny's foundation received seven donations from Natsarenus, totaling 1400 rubles.
In addition, in December 2025, the Kaliningrad Region Court sentenced by four months of the citizen Kazanovsky (the name is not indicated in the verdict) for transferring 300 rubles to the FBK after watching the same video calling on supporters.
This video appears in most of the sentences regarding the financing of the FBK as a motive for the defendants to make donations.
At least two other defendants received suspended sentences (three years each). Their verdicts contained similar charges.
Read also: Journalism under investigation. Persecution of journalists and bloggers in Russia since the outbreak of the war with Ukraine. Updated "NonMoscow" base
AUE
However, the harshest sentences in extremism cases were received not by FBK supporters, but by supporters of the so-called AUE movement. The acronym stands for "prisoner's code is one" or "prisoner's criminal unity."
One of the first to report on the AUE phenomenon in 2017 said Olga, Novaya Gazeta. According to journalists, this acronym has begun to be used as a greeting by teenagers with criminal tendencies. The newspaper claimed that AUE has become a "true ideology" and an "object of worship" among young people.
In the fall of 2020, the Supreme Court of Russia recognized AUE was declared an "extremist organization" and banned in the Russian Federation, while calling it an "international social movement." Researchers, human rights activists, and criminologists are calling this decision in doubtThey note that AUE is more of a subculture, a set of norms and symbols of the prison environment, as well as disparate teenage and youth groups, rather than a unified organization with membership, leadership, and structure.
This did not stop the Russian law enforcement system from persecuting so-called AUE supporters: after the ban, some cases against criminals were classified under extremism laws.
A total of 163 AUE-related verdicts have been publicly released since the war began. Of these, 34 were under Article 282.2 of the Russian Criminal Code (organizing the activities of an extremist organization). NeMoskva found at least three court decisions (time, two, three), by which citizens recognized as followers of AUE were sentenced to seven or more years of imprisonment.
The longest term is 8 years 10 months, which will be in May 2023. got some Arsen NiftalievAs the investigation and court established, while in prison, he rose to a high position in the criminal hierarchy, organized the activities of the "AUE cell," and was responsible for its financing. The verdict states that Niftaliev and his associates organized an underground casino in Astrakhan's Correctional Colony No. 6, through which they "collected" over 6 million rubles. They spent the money on personal needs: purchasing food, communications equipment, and "other items prohibited from circulation." The verdict does not explain how the prisoners' activities were connected to AUE.
At least 127 convictions for displaying AUE symbols are publicly available. Typically, they involve already convicted individuals publicly displaying tattoos of the eight-pointed thieves' stars. Most often, such "displays of symbols" occur within the penal colony itself, according to the sentences reviewed by NeMoskva: the convicted person removes their uniform in the presence of other inmates or staff and receives a sentence extension.
The second most “popular” case is the publication of symbols on social networks.
Of the 127 defendants, 75 were sentenced to prison terms (usually no more than eighteen months). These sentences were typically added to existing sentences for the crimes they committed.
Real prison terms are also assigned for other tattoos. Since February 2022, Russian courts have handed down at least 145 guilty verdicts for displaying Nazi symbols, primarily tattoos. In almost every second case, actual prison sentences were imposed. Approximately half of the cases were initiated in penal colonies and pretrial detention centers. The pattern is consistent: a person with a tattoo of a swastika, SS runes, solar symbols, or other symbols "confusingly similar" to Nazi ones exposes their body in a public place (a bathhouse, by a pool, in the courtyard of a pretrial detention center) and is visible to staff or other onlookers.
LGBT
A separate direction of political repression in Russia was formed after recognition extremist "LGBT movement" in November 2023.
The first criminal case on "LGBT extremism" excited in Orenburg in connection with the operation of the Pose club in March 2024. In June 2026, the court sentenced three of its employees were sentenced to real prison terms. The establishment's art director To Alexander Klimov The administrator was sentenced to two years and three months in prison Diana Kamilyanova - six years and three months to the owner To Vyacheslav Khasanov — seven years. None of the convicted admitted guilt.
NeMoskva was unable to find a single text of a court decision on "LGBT extremism" cases in the file cabinets. сообщает According to the human rights project "First Department," Russian courts do not publish these sentences, so it is not yet possible to calculate the number of those convicted.
According to Human Rights Watch, published In June 2026, at least nine people were prosecuted and convicted in connection with the designation of the “LGBT movement” as “extremist,” including for allegedly leading organizations allegedly part of this movement, distributing content, and conducting drag show i (A stage performance in which performers create highly theatrical gender roles through costume, makeup, dance, music, and parody.) , activism, and organizing same-sex dates. Criminal cases have been opened against at least 25 more people.
A journalist from the publication "Parni Plus" became the first "participant of the international LGBT movement" in Russia. Vadim VaganovDue to posts on his personal Telegram channel, he was banned four times. fined under the administrative article on “LGBT propaganda”, in May 2026 - announced the He was placed on the federal wanted list. This could mean that a criminal case has been opened against him in absentia (the official reason for the search has not yet been disclosed). Vaganov does not excludethat the persecution is related to extremist legislation.
One of the first cases that resulted in actual imprisonment was the court decision in the case of the co-owner of the Chita nightclub "Tochka" Tatyana ZorinaIn March 2026, a 23-year-old girl appointed She was sentenced to four years in prison after being found guilty of organizing the activities of an "extremist organization." The court stated that she had "launched an entertainment establishment with the aim of promoting the ideology of an international public association banned in the Russian Federation and increasing its membership."
One of the harshest sentences was handed down in December 2025 to a sex educator. Sasha KazantsevaThe court found her guilty of spreading "fakes" about the army, failing to fulfill her duties as a "foreign agent," and inciting participation in an "extremist organization." stated According to the Moscow Prosecutor's Office, Kazantseva "systematically committed organizational actions aimed at continuing the illegal activities of a cell of an international social movement and involving an unlimited number of people in it." The agency did not name the movement itself. The sex educator was sentenced in absentia to nine years in prison; she is not in Russia.
Sentences for "LGBT extremism" don't always involve actual prison time. For example, in July 2026, a four-year suspended sentence was issued. was sentenced Director of the Sales Department of Eksmo Publishing House Artem VakhlyaevThe court found that the man, along with two "accomplices," distributed over 900 copies of ten books that "form 'LGBT ideology.'" Among them were "Summer in a Pioneer Tie," "What the Swallow Is Silent About," "Windows to the Yard," "The King's Retinue," "Days of Our Lives," and "Call Me by Your Name." In this way, the defendants allegedly recruited readers into the activities of the "International LGBT Public Movement" and participated in it themselves.
This material on extremism cases is part of the "Fear Statistics" study. In the next publication, we'll examine data on Nazi rehabilitation cases.
