The Supreme Court will consider the claim of the Prosecutor General's Office to ban the movement of Satanism

On July 22, the Supreme Court will consider the claim of the Prosecutor General's Office for recognizing the "international Satanism movement" as extremist and banning it in Russia. Earlier, a similar demand was made by some State Duma deputies, public figures and priests.

Forbidden entry: how the search for extremist materials on the Web will be detected

There will be no mass monitoring of Internet user requests, the State Duma assured

The lawyers interviewed by Izvestia agreed that the likelihood of the claim being satisfied by the Supreme Court is high. Previously, the LGBT movement and the AUE criminal subculture were recognized and banned in Russia according to the same scheme.

Both subcultures are not institutionalized, but this did not prevent their injunction. The court banned LGBT in November 2023, and AUE in August 2020.

If the court grants the claim, citizens may face both administrative and criminal liability for paraphernalia, jewelry or costume jewelry depicting Satanic symbols. All these items can now be equated with extremist ones, the lawyers explained.

For the "production, storage and mass distribution of extremist materials", the fine for citizens is from 1 thousand to 3 thousand rubles or administrative arrest for up to 15 days. For officials — from 2 to 5 thousand rubles, for legal entities — from 100 thousand to 1 million rubles, or administrative suspension of activities for up to 90 days.

But public calls to carry out extremist activities (for example, to participate in rituals), the organization of extremist activities and their financing are already prosecuted under criminal law with imprisonment up to 12 years.

The line between all these compounds is very thin, so both citizens and organizations will need to check their resources very carefully in order not to become violators of the law, the lawyers warned.