A law providing for countering extremism was developed even when Yeltsin was the country's president. When V.V. came to power Putin, he was forced by the administration of the head of state. It was adopted in 2002 by the State Duma. Approved by the Federation Council and signed by the president, then it was published in the Rossiyskaya Gazeta. After it was adopted, another bill appeared that determined the introduction of amendments to the legislative acts of the Russian Federation in connection with its adoption. So article 282 of the Criminal Code appeared. Even then, from the conclusion of a number of authoritative experts, a conclusion was drawn that this law contradicts certain points of the Constitution and a number of international acts. But this did not prevent its existence, and over ten years it has replenished with a number of amendments.
Article 282 defines the punishment for such acts as humiliation of human dignity, which is committed on a number of grounds - race, language, faith, nationality, gender or origin, as well as belonging to any social group. It states that such actions can be carried out using the media (which may be considered an aggravating circumstance). According to this article, the punishment may be in the form of a fine (from 100 thousand to 300 thousand rubles), deprivation of the right to engage in certain types of activities or to occupy any position (for a maximum of three years), or compulsory (or correctional) work. It is not excluded and imprisonment for up to two years.
Aggravating circumstances may include the following: use (or threat of use) of violence; use of one’s position or position; actions by an organized group. In such cases, the penalty is tightened - the size of the fine increases, or the period during which it is forbidden to hold any position, or the term of imprisonment is increased (up to five years), and so on. Article 282 provides for liability for the above actions for any citizen. The only condition is that he is 16 years old.
Article 282 defines the types of punishment for organizing extremist communities and organizing the activities of such communities.
It should be noted that the "two hundred and eighty-second" is a very mixed attitude. I must say that the wording of article 282 does not even give a hint of exactly what actions can be attributed to the corpus delicti. Therefore, it can be interpreted virtually any way. On the one hand, its wording, or rather, the lack of a clear one, makes it possible to almost level out the meaning of this article. And on the other hand, it can be interpreted so broadly that practically harmless actions can easily be called “extremism”, “xenophobia”, etc.
Unfortunately, the practice of legal proceedings in Russia shows that the legal meaning of this article is leveled when the criminal act is aimed at the Russian-speaking population, but it is punished mainly by Russian-speaking people (including members of Russian nationalist organizations). That is, a native of the Caucasus or Central Asia will be acquitted of the same crime, but the native of the Russian Federation will be condemned in all severity (exceptions are very rare) - a kind of “positive discrimination”. Therefore, the people have long called it the "Russian article."
Further, the key evidence for the prosecution in this case is the expert’s opinion, but, unfortunately, due to the vagueness of “two hundred and eighty-second,” the accuracy of the examination and its compliance with legislative standards is not undeniable, in addition, sometimes experts play the role of incompetent persons. Extremism is often understood not only as any action, but also the expression of certain thoughts, ideas and even individual words. By the way, active users of the Internet should not forget that there are 282 articles, and be attentive to their statements in the comments or articles created. After all, there have already been cases when bloggers were tried for inciting hatred on a national basis.