Russia gets tough on Hate Crimes

EJP: The Russian government has approved last week a bill to impose tough penalties for racist violence and anti-Semitism, news agencies said, as two more attacks on foreigners were reported in a rising tide of hate crimes in the country. The bill to be submitted to parliament calls for jail terms of up to three years for persons convicted of crimes with racial motives or with the aim of sowing ethnic, religious or ideological hatred, ITAR-TASS and RIA Novosti said. It also called for imposition of fines of up to 1,000 times the minimum wage index rate, or 100,000 rubles (around 2,967 euros), for the production, distribution or use of Nazi paraphernalia or symbols, the reports said. "The production or spread of agitation materials including propagandistic literature is considered one type of extremist activity" in the bill, an unnamed government spokesman was quoted by ITAR-TASS as saying.