Centre for Combating Extremism

Full name: General Board for the Prevention of Extremism of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation. The Centre was established in September 2008 from the president Dmitry Medvedev decree. The new structure was active mainly in the North Caucasus and in the Crimea after the annexation of the peninsula.

Its task includes monitoring of social networks in search of content promoting extremism, ethnic or religious hatred. Critics indicate that the Centre's workers actively search the social media accounts of oppositionists and activists. They look for information about protests organised by the opposition and join discussion groups in order to provoke others.