Responsibility for insult based on nationality

What is considered a national insult?

According to Russian legislation, an insult based on nationality is considered to be the public utterance of obscene words addressed to a specific nation or its representative, emphasizing the person’s belonging to this nation.

To insult other people, they can also use the symbols of any state or other symbols associated with the culture of a given people.

Based on hatred towards another nation, they can humiliate its representatives or representatives of an entire race, as well as native speakers and representatives of a certain religion.

Article 282 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation in the first part qualifies insult based on nationality as inciting hatred. In combination with aggravating circumstances, such actions can be interpreted as undermining the state system. This is regarded by law as a serious crime.

Arbitrage practice

Inciting national, racial or religious hatred is actively punished by Russian courts. The number of people convicted under Article 282 is constantly growing. In 2011, 82 guilty verdicts were handed down under this article; a year later, the number of guilty verdicts had already doubled. In 2014, there was another jump to 307 people convicted under the article. The growth trend continued in 2015 – 588 people were convicted under this article. In 2021, the number of convictions is close to one thousand.

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Corpus delicti

The object of insult is the honor and dignity of a person. But in the case of insulting on ethnic grounds and inciting hatred with its help, public safety also becomes an object.

Discord becomes the reason for committing violent crimes, the object of which is the health and life of people.

This type of crime is committed during the following actions:

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• Propaganda. At the same time, ideas of hostility towards a specific national group are actively spreading. For dissemination, various communication channels can be used, including the media.
• Humiliation of dignity through obscene and slanderous statements addressed to a person belonging to a certain social or national group.
• Exaltation of a nation or race. In practice, this most often comes down to Nazi propaganda.

Such actions directly cause moral damage to the victims, and often to the entire society.

The subject of ethnic insult may be a sane person over the age of 16 years. The subjective side is expressed in the presence of direct intent. The criminal wants the negative consequences of his actions to occur as quickly as possible.

Dog like

The Presidium of the Supreme Court of Russia included detailed explanations regarding insults in its latest review of judicial practice. We must remember two things. First: no matter what happens, we must control ourselves and choose civilized words. Second: if we are insulted, it is very easy to hold us accountable. There is no need to swear back, and even more so, there is no need to rush at the offender with your fists. It is enough to record the fact and write a statement where it should be. Believe me: the offender will pay in full.

“So, O., using a mobile phone that belonged to her, recorded a voice message and sent it from the subscriber number assigned to her by her cellular operator via the messenger Sh.,” says the review of the Supreme Court of Russia. “In this message, O., using profanity, expressed dissatisfaction with Sh.’s organization of a photo shoot for kindergarten students, which offended the latter.”

History is silent about what was wrong with the photo shoot. But because citizen O. chose the wrong words to express her thoughts, she had to pay a fine. True, her punishment was commuted because the insults were made in private: that is, in personal correspondence, and not in front of everyone.

There is an important legal nuance here, which the Supreme Court clarified. The Code of Administrative Offenses distinguishes face-to-face and public insults. For the first ones, the punishment for citizens is from 3 to 5 thousand rubles. For the latter - including insults on the Internet - from 5 to 10 thousand rubles. As the Presidium of the Supreme Court of Russia explained in its review of judicial practice, insults committed by sending SMS messages or personal messages, including voice messages, in messengers or social networks, are subject to qualification under the first point, that is, as private.

You need to complain about insults to the prosecutor's office. The case is being heard by the Magistrate's Court

“The Supreme Court examined the practice of “newfangled” public and private insults in instant messengers, social networks and on the Internet, insult by one person to several at once, as well as the issue of minor insults. At the same time, insult can include not only swearing and comparison with animals, but also other “insults,” says Artem Korostelev, a member of the Russian Lawyers’ Association. — It all depends on the convincingness of the applicant’s arguments. An additional argument would be, for example, the conclusion of a linguistic examination.”

For example, as the Supreme Court said, a certain M. “posted a comment on the website of the maternity hospital in which she spoke insultingly about doctor A., ​​informing network users about the poor quality of medical services provided to her by this doctor, using expressions that contradict generally accepted norms of morality and morality and are humiliating honor and dignity of the victim."

For this, the woman was punished under the second, more severe, point. After all, the insults were public. A person has the right to express his dissatisfaction with someone’s work, that’s why review services exist. However, when speaking about someone, one should not cross boundaries. “The doctor is not qualified enough, I’m unhappy” is one thing, and “the doctor is complete... (expletive)” is quite another. The line between opinion and insult when writing a review is simple: you need to say what you know, not what you think.

RG experts explain the legal qualification of insults in the “Legal Consultation” section

“Resolutions to initiate a case of administrative liability for insult are drawn up by city and district prosecutors, so you need to complain to the prosecutor’s office,” explains Artem Korostelev. The case of insult is being heard by the Magistrates' Court. According to the Judicial Department of the Supreme Court of Russia, last year the courts punished more than 13.5 thousand citizens for insults. In order to record insults on the Internet, you need to contact a notary.

For example, as told in the Supreme Court, a certain citizen G. “posted a video on a social network, available for viewing by an unlimited circle of people, addressed to A. and accompanied by an indecent statement, degrading the honor and dignity of the latter.” The result of the appeal is a fine.

Serial abusers are also emerging. The press service of the courts of the Vologda region "RG" told the story of 65-year-old Victor P. One evening the pensioner addressed his neighbor with words in an indecent form, insulting her honor and dignity. The magistrate found P. guilty. And a few months earlier, the pensioner had already been fined one thousand rubles for insulting his neighbor’s son. So the system of punishment for insults has been worked out.

Qualifying features

Article 282 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation defines three qualifying criteria:

• Use of threat or violence during the commission of a crime. The deed is characterized by the severity of its consequences.
• Using official position to incite ethnic hatred.
• Committing a crime by a group of people by prior conspiracy.

If there are several signs in a particular case, the punishment of the perpetrators will be determined based on their totality.

Responsibility

If an insult based on nationality is classified under the first part of Article 282 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation, the perpetrators face up to 5 years in prison. Additionally, the court has the right to prohibit them from engaging in certain activities.

If there are qualifying elements of a crime, the term of imprisonment will increase to 6 years. In addition, a fine may be applied.

Legal scholars note that Article 282 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation is quite abstract and allows it to be interpreted very broadly. Therefore, in the case of an unprofessional approach to assessing a crime, human rights may be limited.

Prosecution for insult

Before the repeal of Article 130 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation, according to which proceedings in the case were previously carried out, claims of this kind were filed in court. Legal representatives of minor citizens whose dignity has been damaged have the right to contact the police, since the duties of this authority include accepting statements on any issues. However, the complaint against the offender will be submitted for consideration to the prosecutor's office (clause 1 of Article 28.4 of the Code of Administrative Offenses of the Russian Federation).

Therefore, it is advisable to immediately pay a visit to the prosecutor, documenting the appeal in accordance with the law. Before writing a statement, it is useful to think through arguments that are convincing enough to bring the offender to justice, and take care of documentary evidence of the violation (audio recordings, witness statements, etc.).

It should not be forgotten that the provision of false information is punishable by a fine in the prescribed amount or correctional labor (clause 1 of Article 307 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation).

When writing a statement to the prosecutor, it is important to pay attention to the following points:

• precise indication of personal and contact information to inform you about the progress of the consideration of the issue and feedback;
• a detailed description of the incident, including the place and time of its occurrence;
• availability of evidence attached to the claim.

In addition, it is recommended to clearly state the claims and demands towards the offender. The specified application addressed to the prosecutor can be sent via the Internet.

When filing a claim, you need to remember the statute of limitations for penalties in an administrative offense case, which is 2 months (Article 4.5 of the Code of Administrative Offenses of the Russian Federation). The prosecutor also allots a two-month period for consideration of the application; due to the need to collect additional evidence, it can increase to 90 days (Article 29.6 of the Code of Administrative Offenses of the Russian Federation). If the verdict is positive, the documentation of the insult proceedings is sent to the court, where the amount of the fine is set for the offender.