Article 282 of the Criminal Code

The law providing for counteraction to extremism was developed even when the country's president was Yeltsin. When V. V. came to power. Putin, he was forced by the administration of the head of state. It was adopted in 2002 by the State Duma. Approved by the Federation Council and signed by the president, then it was published in the Rossiyskaya Gazeta. After it was adopted, another bill appeared that determined the introduction of amendments to the legislative acts of the Russian Federation in connection with its adoption. So there was article 282 of the Criminal Code. Even then, from the conclusion of a number of authoritative experts, the conclusion arose that this law contradicts certain points of the Constitution and a number of international acts. But this did not prevent his existence, and for ten years he was supplemented by a number of amendments.

Article 282 defines the measure of punishment for such acts as the humiliation of human dignity, which takes place on a number of grounds - race, language, faith, nationality, sex or origin, as well as belonging to a social group. It states that such actions can be carried out using the media (which can be considered an aggravating circumstance). According to this article, the punishment may be in the form of a fine (from 100 thousand to 300 thousand rubles), deprivation of the right to engage in certain types of activities, or hold any positions (for a maximum of three years), or mandatory (or corrective) work. It is not excluded and imprisonment for up to two years.

Aggravating circumstances may be the following: the use (or threat of use) of violence; Use of one's position or position; Actions by an organized group. In such cases, the punishment is toughened - the amount of the fine increases, or the period during which it is forbidden to hold any office, or the term of imprisonment (up to five years) is increased, etc. Article 282 provides for responsibility for the above actions for any citizen. The only condition is that he is 16 years of age.

Article 282 defines the types of punishment for the organization of extremist communities and the organization of the activities of such communities.

It should be noted that to "two hundred and eighty-second" a very ambiguous attitude. I must say that the wording of article 282 does not even give a hint of what kind of actions can be attributed to the composition of the crime. Therefore, it can be interpreted almost arbitrarily. On the one hand, its wording, or rather, the lack of a clear one, allows us to almost level out the meaning of this article. And on the other hand, it can be interpreted so widely that it is easy to call practically harmless actions "extremism", "xenophobia", etc.

Unfortunately, the practice of legal proceedings in Russia shows that the legal meaning of this article is leveled when a criminal act is aimed against the Russian-speaking population, while most of the Russian-speaking (including members of Russian nationalist organizations) are punished for it. That is, for the same crime, the person from the Caucasus or Central Asia will be acquitted, but the native inhabitant of the Russian Federation will be condemned to the fullest extent (exceptions are very rare) - a kind of "positive discrimination". Therefore, the people have long been called "Russian article".

Further, the key evidence on the charge in this case is the opinion of the expert, but, unfortunately, due to the dilution of the "two hundred and eighty-second", the accuracy of the examination and its compliance with the legislative norms is not unquestionable, in addition, sometimes incompetent persons act as experts. Extremism is often understood not only as an act, but also as the expression of certain thoughts, ideas, and even individual words. By the way, active users of the Internet should not forget that there is a 282 article, and be attentive to their statements in the comments or articles being created. After all, there were already cases when bloggers were tried for inciting hatred on a national basis.