Russian lawmakers adopt draft legislation to extend speech restrictions to reporting and criticism about ‘volunteer’ mercenaries

Russian lawmakers have adopted the second reading of amendments to misdemeanor and felony statutes that would expand protections for soldiers and federal officials against “disinformation” and “discrediting claims” to all “volunteers” aiding Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine. If passed in a third and final reading (this vote is scheduled for March 14) and then adopted by the Federation Council and signed by President Putin, the legislation would make it illegal to spread any unofficial information about “volunteer battalions” or Russian mercenaries now fighting in Ukraine. Even expressing general disapproval of these groups or their actions could constitute a crime.

The amendments also raise the maximum penalty for violating these felony statutes without aggravating circumstances, from three years in prison to five years. Lawmakers also voted to raise the maximum felony penalty for spreading “discrediting” claims that somehow result in death or mass unrest, from five years in prison to seven. The maximum punishment for disseminating “disinformation” about soldiers, volunteers, and officials would remain 15 years in prison.

In the immediate aftermath of the February 2022 full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Russian lawmakers enacted sweeping restrictions on anti-war speech. In January 2023, the outspoken head of the Wagner Group paramilitary cartel, Evgeny Prigozhin, publicly urged State Duma Speaker Vyacheclav Volodin to extend these limitations to speech about “volunteers, including former prison inmates” (thousands of whom Wagner Group has recruited to fight in Ukraine).