Russian Artists Convicted of Inciting Religious Enmity

In a prosecution that has garnered steadily growing criticism since it’s inception in 2008, two Russian art exhibit organizers were convicted today under the Russian Criminal Code section that sanctions “incitement of national, racial, or religious enmity.” See the Associated Press story. A 2008 post on GiF.ru – Art of Russia sets out a careful translation into English of the (long) Russian indictment. The text of Article 282 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation reads as follows in English:

Article 282. Incitement of National, Racial, or Religious Enmity

1. Actions aimed at the incitement of national, racial, or religious enmity, abasement of human dignity, and also propaganda of the exceptionality, superiority, or inferiority of individuals by reason of their attitude to religion, national, or racial affiliation, if these acts have been committed in public or with the use of mass media, shall be punishable by a fine in the amount of 500 to 800 minimum wages, or in the amount of the wage or salary, or any other income of the convicted person for a period of five to eight months, or by restraint of liberty for a term of up to three years, or by deprivation of liberty for a term of two to four years.

2. The same acts committed:
a) with the use of violence or with the threat of its use;
b) by a person through his official position;
c) by an organized group,
shall be punishable by deprivation of liberty for a term of three to five years.

Among the images that caused the trouble were, according to the BBC story, depictions of Jesus Christ with the head of Mickey Mouse and of Lenin, and, according to France24 “a spoof ad for Coca-Cola sloganed ‘This is my Blood'”.

click images to enlarge

The organizers were fined and received no prison sentences, even though the original indictment alleged they had breached paragraph b of section 2 of Article 282.

Any such prosecution in Canada under s.319 (2) of the Code (“willful promotion of hatred”) would likely meet a subsection 3(b) defence:

(3) No person shall be convicted of an offence under subsection (2) . . .

(b) if, in good faith, the person expressed or attempted to establish by an argument an opinion on a religious subject or an opinion based on a belief in a religious text;

Provided, that is, that art can be conceived of as an argument. . . .