A bill on introduction of criminal liability for “propaganda and justification of the extremist ideology” has been introduced to the State Duma, the lower house of Russia’s Parliament, as per one of the bill’s authors, the chair of the State Duma security committee Vitaly Piskaryov.
The proposal is to add amendments to the article 280 of Russia’s Criminal Code (“Public calls for extremist activities”). “The liability will now also be applied to public justification or propaganda of extremism, [it will become equal] to public calls for extremist activities,” he said.
The punishment under this article varies from a fine up to 300,000 rubles (€2,939) to five years of imprisonment.
“We think that the approval of our amendments will become an important preventive measure that will, primarily, protect children and youths from the destructive influence of the extremist ideology and attempts to involve them into unlawful, dangerous activities”, he added.
According to the deputy, the bill is a reaction of Russian authorities to the “propaganda” of mass murders in educational institutions and kindergartens.
Russia’s Criminal Code already has a similar article — the article 205.2 (“Public calls for terrorist activities, public justification of terrorism, or propaganda of terrorism”), the punishment for which is up to seven years behind bars. Moscow activist Mikhail Kriger was sentenced to seven years in prison under this article. Furthermore, theatre director Evgenia Berkovich and playwright Svetlana Petriychuk were charged with “justifying terrorism” over the play Finist, the Brave Falcon.