(AP) – Russia's parliament will consider a law that would allow the confiscation of money, valuables and other property from people deemed to have spread “deliberately false information” about Russian military operations, a senior lawmaker said. announced on Saturday.
State Duma Speaker Vyacheslav Volodin said in a Telegram update that the measures openly incite “extremist activities”, call for the introduction of sanctions against Russia, and “discredit” the armed forces and criminals. I wrote that it also applies to people. The violation is based on a law adopted as part of Moscow's crackdown on dissent after sending troops to Ukraine in February 2022.
“Everyone who seeks to destroy Russia, who betrays Russia, must receive the deserved punishment and compensate for the damage he caused to the country at the cost of property,” Volodin said. He added that under the law, those found guilty of “discrediting” the military could also be stripped of their honorary titles.
Borodin said the bill would be submitted to Russia's Duma on Monday.
Russian dissident Navalny resurfaces in Arctic prison, weeks after disappearancehttps://t.co/J941xoDiYx
— Breitbart London (@BreitbartLondon) December 25, 2023
Current laws against “discrediting” the Russian military target crimes such as “legitimizing terrorism” and spreading “fake news” about the military, aimed at silencing critics of Russian President Vladimir Putin. is used regularly. Several activists, bloggers, and ordinary Russians have received long prison sentences.
Russian state media reported last month that one of the country's best-selling novelists, known by the pseudonym Boris Akunin, had been charged under the law and added to Russia's “extremist and terrorist” register. Another popular writer, Dmitry Glukhovsky, was sentenced in absentia to eight years in prison after a Moscow court found him guilty in August of intentionally spreading false information about the Russian military.
In November, a St. Petersburg court sentenced artist and musician Sasha Skochilenko to seven years in prison for exchanging supermarket price tags and anti-war messages. The previous month, Russian blogger Alexander Nozdrinov was sentenced to eight-and-a-half years in prison for posting photos of destroyed buildings in Kiev with captions that suggested the Russian military was responsible.
