MOSCOW, August 3 (RAPSI) – Amount of xenophobia-related incidents and crimes registered in the first half of 2016 is slightly lower than the statistics for the same period of 2015, RIA Novosti reported on Wednesday, citing a report of the Moscow Bureau of Human Rights.

Human rights experts note that in the first six months of 2016 Russian authorities were taking consistent measures to combat extremism, including nationalism and xenophobia.

According to the report, 105 sentences were issued in xenophobic propaganda cases in 2016, while in the same period of 2015 it reached only 85 cases.

At the same time amount of criminal cases, involving violence on the basis of hatred, dropped. In the first six months of 2015, 11 sentences were issued in such cases with 24 people found guilty. In 2016, for the same period, 11 sentences were issued with 18 people found guilty.