Russia’s State Duma, the lower house of Parliament, has approved the bill on arrests and fines for spreading “extremist materials” not included on the corresponding list compiled by the Ministry of Justice, as per the duma’s website.
Previously, there was liability for producing and spreading “extremist materials” only in case the materials in question had been included on the federal registry.
The explanatory note states that now the law will apply to “works of the leaders of the National Socialist German Workers’ Party, Italy’s Fascist Party, publications that justify national and / or racial supremacy or justify the practice of committing war or other kind of crimes”, etc.
Distribution of such material could lead to up to 15 days of arrest or a 1 million ruble (€12,000) fine.
The authors of the bill previously proposed to recognise maps and other images and products that contest Russia’s “territorial integrity” as extremist materials as well.
Updated at 18:51 Moscow time. There was an error in the previous version of the article: today, the State Suma adopted a bill on arrests and fines for spreading “extremist materials”. The bill on fines for maps that contest Russia’s “territorial integrity” has not been adopted. It is still being considered by the State Duma; it was introduced to the duma in January.
