The Judiciary Department of the Supreme Court has released summary statistics on sentences and the work of Russian courts for 2022. Compared to the previous year, the number of people convicted of incitement to extremism increased by 20%, those convicted of treason increased by 14%, 14 people were sentenced for discrediting the army – a new article of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation came into force only during the reporting period.
Treason and espionage
The number of people convicted under the article on high treason (Article 275 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation) increased by 14.3% compared to 2021 – 16 people were sentenced to imprisonment against 14 a year earlier. The number of cases of disclosure of state secrets (Article 283, Part 1 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation) increased by almost 14% – from 58 to 66. This is the maximum value during of the past five years.
Only one person was convicted of espionage in 2022. A year earlier, courts convicted three people under this article.
The article on discrediting the Armed Forces of Russia (Article 207.3 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation) appeared in the legislation only in 2022, and 14 people were criminally convicted. Most of the cases covered by this article are administrative in nature.
Ivan Vodopyanov / Kommersant
“Today, any public and non-public activity is discredited by the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation – from the harmless picket “Peace to the world” to appeals to refuse to receive a summons. The compositions of the Code of Administrative Offenses and the Code are described by the legislator almost identically, which allows the security forces themselves to determine where the administrative law ends and the criminal offense begins,” commented lawyer Sarkis Darbinyan on the application of this article. to Russian media.
New articles of the Penal Code relating to offenses against military service (for non-compliance with the order of the commander, desertion, looting, violation of the rules of combat duty, willful destruction or damage to military property) entered into force at the fall of 2022, which likely explains why they were not included in the Justice Department’s statistics during the reporting period.
Terrorism and extremism
The number of cases of deliberately false reporting of an act of terrorism increased by 21% compared to the previous year. In 2022, Russian courts heard 28% more cases under articles on assisting terrorist activities.
In general, the number of extremist crimes increased slightly during the year, but did not reach the 2018 values ​​for a number of articles. People were arrested less frequently for inciting hatred and enmity, and more often for organizing and participating in an extremist community.
Federal Security Service of the Russian Federation for the Republic of Crimea and the city of Sevastopol / TASS
“State priorities changed in 2022, in connection with which the general parameters of the power unit were updated. As can be seen, the number of cases under classic extremist articles is decreasing, as well as cases of insulting the feelings of believers and justifying terrorism. This is partly due to the introduction of an administrative prejudice for cases under former Article 282 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation, as well as the fact that in the field of information authorities are now more concerned with other content,” Darbinyan believes.
However, despite the general decline in the number of criminal cases with a terrorist and extremist orientation, the sentences imposed on them have become much more severe. If before the courts were mainly limited to a suspended sentence and a fine, then for some years the defendants have been sentenced to real prison and sent to colonies for a longer period.
“There are fewer such cases, but the convictions about them are becoming more and more threatening and more public, which becomes a prerequisite for the introduction of a high level of self-censorship in the networks. social,” summed up Darbinyan.
An increase of 30% compared to 2021 was recorded by the courts under the article on vandalism (article 214 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation). Human rights activists and journalists have noted that some people who publicly express an anti-war stance are held accountable, including under this article – for example, for graffiti with pacifist content.
State of Crime
The total number of people sentenced to imprisonment increased by 4.5% compared to the previous year. The indicators returned almost to the values ​​​​of 2019 – then there were almost 182,000 people sentenced to prison terms in the country.
Also increased the number of Russians, in respect of whom a decision was made to restrict freedom. Compared to 2018, courts began to assign forced labor to convicts 2.7 times more often than in 2018. Separately, it should be noted that the number of convicts sentenced to restriction of military service increased by 24 .3% compared to 2021 (Article 51 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation ).
Crimes committed by minors are on the increase. If in 2018 the judicial department reported almost 28,000 cases, then in 2022 – about 19,500. A downward trend in the number of crimes is also observed among the military – from almost 6,000 cases in 2018 to 5.3 in 2022.
Statistics show that the number of offenses related to the illegal storage and transportation of weapons (Articles 222-226.1 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation) has been steadily decreasing since 2018, and hostilities on the territory of Ukraine have not not affected this trend.
“Recently, you and I hear very often how someone gets caught in different parts of the country with a wide variety of weapons, from machine guns to grenade launchers. Considering the number of hidden weapons currently uncovered, this statistic talks about the total mess that is happening with regard to weapons and the supervision of issued weapons: once they leave the place of hostilities, people can safely take these trophies with them. I can assume with a high degree of probability that such chaos in the control issue will give rise to a wave of civil violence,” Yegor Redin, managing partner at law firm Position of Law, shared his opinion with Russian media.
“The population had not had so many weapons since the 90s”
The lawyer assumes that some of these cases can be resolved out of court by agreement with the individual departments, so the statistics of the judicial department do not reflect reliable information.
“I see no reason to believe that the statistics are unreliable. But it is important to understand that in statistics only those cases that are before the courts. Moreover, judicial statistics do not take into account the level of latent criminality. And it shouldn’t,” lawyer Alexander Peredruk told Russian media.
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