St. Petersburg, 30 Aug. A court in St. Petersburg has taken into custody Mark Filippov, the administrator of the telegram channel and the group on the VKontakte social network of the White Suit neo-Nazi group, the joint press service of the city courts reported.
«The Primorsky District Court of St. Petersburg ruled on the choice of a preventive measure in the form of detention against Mark Filippov, who is accused of committing a crime under paragraph «c» of Part 2 of Article 282 (inciting hatred or enmity, as well as humiliation of human dignity) of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation … The term of the measure is 10.10.2023 (the term of the preliminary investigation),» the message says.
The investigation believes that no later than February 25, 2020, Filippov and other persons, «being adherents of nationalist views, being on the territory of the Russian Federation, united in an organized group to joint commission of crimes of a terrorist nature.
“To implement the intent, they used the groups created by them on the social network VKontakte and the Telegram messenger called White Suit and the Moscow Mutual Aid Group. Filippov ensured the preparation and publication of materials calling for the implementation of extremist and terrorist activities, being the administrator of groups,» the press service of the courts reports. It is noted that Filippov does not admit guilt, he asked to choose a softer measure.
Last week it was reported that security forces in Moscow and St. Petersburg were conducting searches at the homes of members of the White Suit Nazi group, which has links to the Russian Volunteer Corps*.
Members of the group profess the cult of the Third Reich, use the symbols of the SS and the NSDAP, and call themselves Russian nationalists. Often they involve young people in the movement. The «White Suit» includes convicted and released representatives of most well-known ultra-right movements and associations: «Combat Organization of Russian Nationalists» *, «Format-18» *, «Combat Terrorist Organization» *, «Restruct» *, «NS/WP» *. The leader of the organization, Artem Tsepp, was convicted in 2014 of hooliganism and deliberate damage to other people's property.
* Terrorist organizations banned in Russia.