Do not post at the post

Today, in the third, final, reading, amendments to the law “On the status of military personnel” have been adopted. The adopted norm forbids the military to publish official information on the Internet, information about their close relatives, colleagues, command or arrangement of military units and limits for them the use of any devices that can spread media files and geolocation data. The ban will not affect only those whose job responsibilities suggest the dissemination of information.

The text of the amendments can be found on the State Duma website. The bill was introduced in September last year, in November was the first reading, a week ago was approved in the second. The deputies associate its need for the fact that "military personnel are of particular interest to special services of individual states, terrorist and extremist organizations." In addition, the explanatory note states that the information prohibited for publication can be used “for information and information and psychological impact on the Russian military, as well as in some cases to form a biased assessment of the state policy of the Russian Federation” .

S. Shoigu in the State Duma / duma.gov.ru

According to the new rules, all military personnel, as well as citizens called up for military training, are prohibited from transferring to the media and distribute information through the Internet that can allow to determine the belonging or purpose of military personnel and citizens called up for military training, to the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation, other troops, military units and bodies. It is proposed to extend a similar ban on information about colleagues, as well as family members and parents of military personnel, including "information that allows you to determine the location of these persons in a certain period." That is, the norm also applies to former colleagues and their relatives. We are talking about any information, even the one that is not attributed to the list of information constituting a military secret.

Separately, the adopted law states that the military cannot be used by smartphones and other gadgets that can record and transfer files with sound and image. We are talking, for example, about phones, tablets, navigators, video recorders or external media of information. This item raised the most questions. But the text discusses that this restriction will act only in the performance of certain duties. “Ordinary button phones without a camera will not be prohibited,” Andrei Krasov, First Deputy Chairman of the State Duma Committee on Defense, told TASS. The deputy emphasized that in everyday life it will be possible to use smartphones. For those who violate the ban, disciplinary liability is provided, the contract can face the contract. The document does not apply to those who are dismissed from military service.

V. Zhirinovsky in the State Duma / mskagency.ru

“We, of course, adopt this law with you, but we must keep in mind that part of the youth, especially advanced, will stop the service. They are already used to the Internet, have been sitting on social networks for so many years. Perhaps compensation is needed, some kind of intra-Army Internet, ” said Vladimir Zhirinovsky, head of the LDPR faction, during the hearing.

For the first time, such an initiative was started two years ago, such a prohibitive practice is widespread in other countries. For example, employees who allowed the publication of secret information in the United States risk the tribunal. And last summer, the Pentagon also forbade the American army to use geolocation applications.

Recall that the adoption of the law is not the only measure to protect information in the Russian armed forces. In November, it was reported that since this year the army has been introduced in the army for military personnel of all categories, a training course on the basics of protecting state secrets.