Investigating Crimes of Extremism

Introduction: extremism in the Russian Federation is opposed by the principle of ideological and political diversity, which determines the democratic principles of Russia, since it is a federal, legal, social state with a Republican form of government. The democratic type of this state expresses the idea of recognizing a multiethnic people as the source of power within the entire territory of the Russian Federation (Part 1 of Article 3 of the Constitution of the Russian Federation), in which the individual ideologies cannot be established as state or mandatory for its citizens. This is due to the creation of a balanced social and national consent, since the national interests of Russia represent the totality of the main interests of the individual, society and the state. The legislator prohibits the functioning of public associations whose efforts are caused by a violent change in the constitutional order and violation of its territorial unity, related to an attack on public security, since they are caused by the criminal liability of persons for committing crimes related to terrorism, separatism and extremism. The purpose of the study: to develop recommendations for improving the efficiency of the investigation of extremist crimes, implementing measures to tighten the criminal law policy, and enhancing the international and domestic cooperation of the investigative subjects aimed at preventing and further minimizing of the consequences of extremism. The research objectives: to characterize the features of pre-trial proceedings during the investigation of crimes of extremism; to offer recommendations for improving the efficiency of investigations of extremist crimes. Methods: the methodological framework for this research is a number of methods of scientific knowledge, as well as such general scientific research methods as dialectical, logical, system, structural and functional ones; including such specific scientific methods as comparative law and formal legal, and others. Results: in the paper, the authors determine that when investigating a crime of extremism, the main task is to determine whether the suspects have actions to incite hatred or enmity, as well as to humiliate human dignity on the grounds of gender, race, nationality, language, origin, attitude to religion or belonging to a social group. To solve these tasks, the searches and seizures are made in homes, the telephone and other conversations are monitored and recorded, the information about connections between subscribers and subscriber devices is obtained, the correspondence is seized, and its inspection and seizure in the communication institutions are allowed which is aimed at collecting, checking and evaluating the existing evidence of extremist activity. Conclusions: the measures to improve the effectiveness of crime investigation have been identified: the placing of extremist crimes under the jurisdiction of the Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation and the Federal Security Service of the Russian Federation; the interaction at the interstate level of the investigators of the Russian Federation with the investigators of foreign states on the issues of legal assistance, on requests in connection with the ongoing investigations and measures to overcome counteraction to the investigation of extremist crimes.