This will not be news to any of you Russians, but I thought I would bring it to the attention of readers in the rest of the world. On October 22, 2007 the Prosecutor's Office of St. Petersburg filed charges against Konstantin Dushenov, chief editor of the publication "Orthodox Russia". He was charged with committing acts "aimed at inciting hatred and enmity, as well as the humiliation of a group of persons on the grounds of nationality, origin, religion, committed publicly and using the media, organized group". December 21, 2009, the prosecutors Remezov and Ashina in the court demanded Dushenov be sentenced to imprisonment in a penal colony for four years. In February 3, 2010 Dushenov was convicted under Article 282 h. 2 of the Criminal Code and sentenced to three years' imprisonment to be served in a penal colony for the authorship and distribution of the film "Russia with a knife in his back: Jewish fascism and genocide of the Russian people" and for the distribution of "Russ Orthodox magazines". The court also deprived Dushenov of the right to engage in publishing activities for three years. The sentence received active discussion in St. Petersburg and the national press. Irina Levinskaya, speaking as a expert official on behalf of the court, claimed Dushenov had not only spread slander and hatred of the Jews, but also earned a lot of money from doing it, a somewhat dubious contention. Andrei Antonov, Dushenov's lawyer from St. Petersburg, said that the verdict Dushenov received was unfounded. He argued that the absurd and untenable are put forward when Russian citizens accused of inciting hatred or hostility towards persons of Jewish nationality, or of humiliating of their dignity. February 2, 2011 Dushenov was transferred from a penal colony to correctional colony. September 28, 2012 Vsevolozhsk City Court decided to parole Dushenov from detention, but the decision was challenged by the Prosecutor's Office. Freedom of association is also controlled. This is a right so important to individual liberty that it is listed in the First Amendment of the United States Constitution. In another case Dmitry Dyomushkin was found guilty of organizing a "criminal organization" after it was established that his group, the Slavic Union, was renamed and continued to operate despite a legal ban. A district magistrate court in Moscow sentenced Dyomushkin to a fine that would later be lifted due to the expiry of the statute of limitations. The court also ordered that the travel ban which had been imposed on Dyomushkin be lifted for the duration of the process. Dmitry Dyomushkin has been denied basic human rights such as freedom of speech, freedom of association. The Slavic Union movement was created in 1999 but banned in 2010 after the Moscow City Court recognized the group as extremist. According to Russian law the ruling means the ban is effective in the whole of Russia.
