Extremism
🛡️ Countering extremism and the rehabilitation of Nazism
COUNTERING EXTREMISM AND REHABILITATION OF NAZISM
The geopolitical position of the Republic of Belarus, borders with states that have an unstable political course, attempts to interfere in its internal affairs, close contact of different religions and cultures make our state vulnerable to the threat of extremism, the global spread of which represents one of the most important and most dangerous social‑political problems in terms of scale and consequences.
Currently, the problem of countering the spread of extremism is relevant both for our state and for the entire global community.
📖 What is extremism?
The term “extremism” comes from the Latin “extremus” – extreme. Today, specialized and popular literature contains several dozen definitions of extremism as such. Most authors agree that an inherent property of extremism is adherence in politics and ideas to extreme views and actions that radically deny existing norms and rules in society.
Being a public phenomenon of worldwide historical significance, extremism manifests in a variety of changing forms. Forms of extremist activity are protest illegal acts of heightened public danger, since extremist ideology and practice are characterized by aggression and the use of illegitimate violence to achieve goals.
⚖️ Legislative definition
In the Law of the Republic of Belarus of 4 January 2007 “On Countering Extremism” the concept of Extremism (extremist activity) is defined as the activity of citizens of the Republic of Belarus, foreign citizens or stateless persons (hereinafter, unless otherwise specified, – citizens) or political parties, professional unions, other public associations, religious and other organisations, including foreign or international organisations or their representations (hereinafter, unless otherwise specified, – organisations), formations and individual entrepreneurs by planning, organising, preparing and committing acts against the independence, territorial integrity, sovereignty, the foundations of the constitutional order, public safety by: violent change of the constitutional order and/or territorial integrity of the Republic of Belarus; seizure or retention of state power by unconstitutional means; creation of an extremist formation or participation in an extremist formation; assistance in extremist activity, undergoing training or other preparation for participation in such activity; dissemination for these purposes of knowingly false information about the political, economic, social, military or international situation of the Republic of Belarus, the legal status of citizens in the Republic of Belarus, discrediting the Republic of Belarus; insults in these purposes of a government representative in connection with the performance of official duties, discrediting state authorities and management; creation for these purposes of an illegal armed formation; carrying out terrorist activity; incitement of racial, national, religious or other social hatred or discord, political or ideological hatred, hatred or discord towards any social group, including the commission of illegal acts against public order and public morality, management order, life and health, personal freedom, honour and dignity of the person, property; organization and execution of mass disturbances, acts of vandalism associated with damage or destruction of property, seizure of buildings and structures, other actions grossly violating public order, or active participation in them motivated by racial, national, religious or other social hatred or discord, political or ideological hatred, hatred or discord towards any social group; committing for these purposes illegal actions concerning weapons, ammunition, explosives; propaganda of exclusivity, superiority or inferiority of citizens based on their social, racial, national, religious or linguistic affiliation; distribution of extremist materials, as well as manufacturing, publishing, storing or transporting such materials for the purpose of distribution; rehabilitation of Nazism, propaganda or public demonstration, manufacturing, distribution of Nazi symbols and attributes, as well as storing or acquiring such symbols or attributes for the purpose of distribution; obstruction of the lawful activities of state bodies, including the Central Election Commission of the Republic of Belarus for elections and referendums, electoral commissions, referendum commissions, commissions for voting on the recall of a deputy, as well as the lawful activities of officials of these bodies, commissions, committed with the use of violence, threats of its use, deception, bribery, as well as the use of violence or threats of violence towards close officials for the purpose of obstructing their lawful activities or coercing them to change the nature of such activities or out of revenge for the performance of their official duties; financing extremist activity; public calls to organize or hold illegal meetings, rallies, street marches, demonstrations or picketing in violation of the established procedure for their organization or conduct, or involving persons in participation in such mass events by means of violence, threats of violence, deception or payment of remuneration, or other organization or conduct of such mass events, if their conduct caused, through negligence, the death of people, causing serious bodily injury to one or several persons or causing large‑scale damage.
Extremist activity necessarily implies a certain ideological background. It may be based on political, religious, racial, national and social ideological platforms. At the same time, all ideologies can be considered only as optional signs of the subjective side of extremist acts, since extremism “acts against existing communities, structures and institutions, trying to disrupt their stability, eliminate them to achieve its goals”.
⚠️ Rehabilitation of Nazism
In Western countries of the near abroad, history is being rewritten, monuments to the heroes of the Great Patriotic War who liberated their countries from Nazism are being destroyed. Police officers, overseers of concentration camps are equated with veterans of the Soviet army, partisan movements and are honored, with marches and parades held in their honor.
In order to prevent the rehabilitation of Nazism and the falsification of history, to preserve historical memory, including the historical facts of 14 May 2021, the Republic of Belarus adopted the law “On preventing the rehabilitation of Nazism”.
On 28 October 2022, the Ministry of Internal Affairs decree “On establishing lists of organizations and other structures, Nazi symbols and attributes” came into force, within which the list includes 9 Nazi organizations and structures, more than 50 elements of Nazi symbols and attributes.
Alongside GESTAPO, SS and SD, the list includes structures that carried out criminal orders of the SS and SD leadership: security service of law enforcement, the 13th Belarusian police battalion under the SD, the 30th Grenadier Division Waffen‑SS.
📊 Situation analysis
Analysis of extremist‑related crimes over the past three years allows us to state the radicalisation of the extremist movement. If in 2020 the bulk of extremist crimes was linked to violations of public order, damage to communal property, blockage of public transport, in 2021 destructive activity moved from the streets to the virtual space, then in 2022‑2023 the adherents of extremist views adopt the most radical method of extremist activity – preparation and organisation of terrorist attacks on the territory of the republic.
Opposition forces and their curators do not cease attempts to drag Belarus into the armed conflict between Russia and Ukraine, while actively lobbying for their ultimate goal – a change of the constitutional order in our country.
The greatest threat is posed by various nationalist armed formations formed outside Belarus. The main goal of illegal armed formations, as well as Western and Ukrainian intelligence services, is the insertion of saboteurs into the territory of the Republic of Belarus to carry out sabotage and terrorist acts in border settlements.
To achieve the mentioned goals on the territory of Ukraine, Poland, Lithuania and other Western countries, Belarusian citizens undergo ideological conditioning followed by military training.
Isolated cases of recruitment of Belarusians have been recorded both in Belarus and on the territory of Poland, Lithuania and Ukraine for participation in combat actions.
There has been an increase in cases of forced expulsion of Belarusians from Ukrainian territory to Poland for training and joining so‑called “volunteer formations” with subsequent deployment to a special operation zone to gain combat experience, and then involving them in sabotage‑terrorist activities in the Republic of Belarus.
🌐 Extremism on the Internet
Another goal of extremists lies in the immaterial sphere – the information field. The target of an extremist attack is public opinion, with the aim of exerting a certain influence on specific public groups.
A particular danger in the global Internet is the destructive influence on youth, because extremist ideas are usually not formulated as a coherent doctrine. A primitive understanding of their essence is one of the reasons for the formation of radical views among youth, including a positive attitude towards violence to achieve set goals.
The main tasks tackled by extremist groups using the Internet, especially social networks and messengers, are manipulation of public opinion, inflaming the situation in the country, discrediting the current authorities, organising protest actions, recruiting new supporters and escalating destabilisation processes in society.
Internet resources have become an effective tool for spreading radical ideas and organising actions of a wide range of people. They gained popularity thanks to advantages such as high information transmission speed, independence from geographic location, potentially huge audience scale, high anonymity of communication, and the ability to quickly and efficiently contact the audience without significant financial costs.
The content of major Internet resources promoting extremist ideology is aggressive and offensive in nature, featuring a solid theoretical base and a well‑thought‑out methodology of information delivery.
🛡️ Countermeasures
The Ministry of Internal Affairs conducts active informational and legal work to reduce the destructive influence of extremist Internet resources on the consciousness of the Belarusian population, with daily monitoring of the activities of destructive citizen groups to timely respond by neutralising their actions and intentions. Administrators and active participants of Internet resources propagating “protest” activity and spreading extremist informational products are identified.
As a result of the information campaign and work on recognising extremist formations since October 2021, more than half a million unsubscriptions from major extremist Telegram channels have been recorded.
The actions of creators, leaders and other participants of extremist formations constitute the offence provided for by Article 361‑1 of the Criminal Code, and subscribing to Internet resources of extremist formations serves as a basis for conducting operational‑search and investigative actions (Article 361‑1 provides for a penalty of up to seven years imprisonment).
Criminal Code norms give a clear definition of creator, leader and participant of formations. Creation, leadership and participation in these formations are provided with serious criminal liability.
Work on recognising groups of citizens as extremist formations will continue, and bringing them to criminal liability under Article 361‑1 for leadership and participation will become an additional reason to strengthen the informational agenda to reduce extremist activity of radical Internet resources.
An additional factor that effectively impacted the outflow of subscribers from extremist Internet resources is the practice of holding subscribers administratively liable for subscribing to them under Article 19.11 of the Administrative Code, formalised as an act expressed by storing extremist materials for subsequent distribution.
Thus, the measures adopted by law‑enforcement agencies have sharply reduced the number of subscribers to extremist Telegram channels and chats, and a further decline in their audience is forecasted.
In light of the above, extremism should be regarded as a political‑legal phenomenon representing one of the main threats to the national security of the Republic of Belarus, also due to the widespread distribution of extremist materials on the Internet.
📋 Reference: Administrative liability
Article 19.10. Propaganda or public demonstration, manufacture, distribution of Nazi symbols or attributes
1. Propaganda or public demonstration, including using the global computer network Internet or another information network, manufacture, distribution of Nazi symbols or attributes, as well as storage or acquisition of such symbols or attributes for the purpose of distribution – lead to the imposition of a fine up to ten basic units with confiscation of the object of the administrative offence, as well as the means and tools used to commit the offence, or without confiscation of such means and tools, or community service with confiscation of the object of the administrative offence, as well as the means and tools used to commit the offence, or without confiscation of such means and tools, or administrative arrest with confiscation of the object of the administrative offence, as well as the means and tools used to commit the offence, or without confiscation of such means and tools, on an individual entrepreneur – a fine up to fifty basic units with confiscation of the object of the administrative offence, as well as the means and tools used to commit the offence, or without confiscation of such means and tools, and on a legal entity – up to two hundred basic units with confiscation of the object of the administrative offence, as well as the means and tools used to commit the offence, or without confiscation of such means and tools.
2. The same acts committed repeatedly within one year after the imposition of an administrative penalty for the same violations – lead to a fine ranging from ten to twenty basic units with confiscation of the object of the administrative offence, as well as the means and tools used to commit the offence, or without confiscation of such means and tools, or community service with confiscation of the object of the administrative offence, as well as the means and tools used to commit the offence, or without confiscation of such means and tools, or administrative arrest with confiscation of the object of the administrative offence, as well as the means and tools used to commit the offence, or without confiscation of such means and tools, on an individual entrepreneur – a fine ranging from twenty to fifty basic units with confiscation of the object of the administrative offence, as well as the means and tools used to commit the offence, or without confiscation of such means and tools, and on a legal entity – from fifty to two hundred basic units with confiscation of the object of the administrative offence, as well as the means and tools used to commit the offence, or without confiscation of such means and tools.
Article 19.11. Distribution, manufacture, storage, transport of informational products containing calls to extremist activity or propagating such activity
1. Distribution of informational products containing calls to extremist activity or propagating such activity, as well as manufacture, storage or transport for the purpose of distribution of such informational products – lead to a fine up to twenty basic units with confiscation of the object of the administrative offence, on an individual entrepreneur – from twenty to fifty basic units with confiscation of the object of the administrative offence, and on a legal entity – from fifty to two hundred basic units with confiscation of the object of the administrative offence.
2. Distribution of informational products included in the republican list of extremist materials, as well as manufacture, publication, storage or transport for the purpose of distribution of such informational products – lead to a fine ranging from ten to thirty basic units with confiscation of the object of the administrative offence, as well as the means and tools used to commit the offence, or without confiscation of such means and tools, or community service with confiscation of the object of the administrative offence, as well as the means and tools used to commit the offence, or without confiscation of such means and tools, or administrative arrest with confiscation of the object of the administrative offence, as well as the means and tools used to commit the offence, or without confiscation of such means and tools, on an individual entrepreneur – a fine ranging from fifty to one hundred basic units with confiscation of the object of the administrative offence, as well as the means and tools used to commit the offence, or without confiscation of such means and tools, and on a legal entity – from one hundred to five hundred basic units with confiscation of the object of the administrative offence, as well as the means and tools used to commit the offence, or without confiscation of such means and tools.