#34 Similar Laws, Different Worlds: Hate Speech in Russia

What happens when hate speech laws look familiar on paper, but function very differently in practice?

In this episode of Zooming in on Hate, we look beyond the borders of the European Union and turn our attention to Russia. Recorded during the annual conference of the International Network Against Cyber Hate (INACH), this conversation features Lydia El-Khouri in discussion with Alexander Verkhovsky of the SOVA Center, an organization that has spent decades monitoring nationalism, xenophobia, and the use—and misuse—of hate speech legislation in Russia.

Alexander explains how Russian hate speech laws initially developed in ways that resembled European legal frameworks, but gradually expanded to cover a much broader range of expression, including political speech. The conversation explores how vague legal categories can be misused, how state-sponsored homophobia shapes the online environment for LGBTQ+ communities, how racism and anti-migrant speech are normalized, and how the war in Ukraine has intensified aggression and narrowed the space for dissent.

This is a sobering episode about law, power, and context—and a reminder that similar legal language can produce radically different realities.