Lev Levinson. Providers guarding state security

The investigation seems to have established that the maniac Alexander Koptsev, who attacked the visitors of the Moscow synagogue with a knife on January 11 of this year, was saturated with the poison of anti-Semitism not just anywhere, but on the Internet - on anti-Semitic sites. This discovery came in handy. No matter what tragedies have happened in Russia in recent years, they all served, first of all, to tighten laws and curtail freedoms. From the ban on the issuance of the corpses of alleged terrorists after Dubrovka to the curtailment of voting rights due to the murder of children in Beslan. Naturally, the massacre in the synagogue should not have been in vain: the authorities have long been waiting for an excuse to put things in order with the Internet.

The happiness of Christians is that Koptsev drew energy from the net, and not from the Gospel. What would have to be done if it turned out that this type was imbued with the self-curse of the Evangelical Jews "His blood is on us and on our children" (Matt. 27, 25) and would take these words for a call to action? Shouldn't the New Testament have been included in the list of extremist materials then?

It is extremist materials distributed on the Internet and other places that are largely devoted to the bill that appeared in the Duma "after the synagogue." It is called "On Amendments to the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation, the Code of the Russian Federation on Administrative Offenses and the Federal Law" On Counteracting Extremist Activities " . According to reports, its idea was generated at the top of United Russia, and the implementation of the idea into the letter of the law was entrusted To the State Duma Committee on Civil, Criminal, Arbitration and Procedural Legislation The latter's chairman, Pavel Krasheninnikov, drafted the bill, since since 2003 (after the adoption of Law No. Supreme Court, the draft was sent at the end of January to these instances.

The key to the project is the fight against "extremist materials" everywhere, including computer games. It is proposed to introduce a new article 280-1 into the Criminal Code, punishing the distribution of extremist materials, including their trade, their production, storage for the purpose of distribution, public demonstration and advertising. For these actions, up to two years of imprisonment are provided, but if they are committed not by one person, but, say, by two (for example, husband and wife) "by prior agreement", or if the person acted "using his official position" ( being, for example, the editor-in-chief), and also if the materials were distributed "knowingly in relation to a minor", the attackers are prescribed from three to eight years.

In order to understand whether one should rejoice at such protection from criminal encroachments, it is necessary to understand what extremist materials are. The answer to this question is provided by the Federal Law of July 25, 2002 "On counteracting extremist activity." Extremist materials he calls documents or information on other media, "calling for the implementation of extremist activities or substantiating or justifying the need for such activities." Extremist activity is understood in the law as anything: in addition to terrorism, humiliation of national dignity, demonstration of Nazi symbols, and the like, the law also classifies "undermining the security of the Russian Federation" as extremist activity. And this is certainly the most interesting thing in the definition of extremism.

Extremist activity, extremist materials - this is the current Russian legislation for several years, which fully corresponds to the well-known description of the drawbar.

In the same 2002, the Criminal Code was fully stuffed with anti-extremist norms. "Public calls to carry out extremist activities" (Article 280), "Organization of an extremist community" (Article 282-1), "Organization of the activities of an extremist organization" (Article 282-2) were added to the infamous Article 282 ("Inciting hatred or enmity, as well as humiliation of human dignity"). The latter has a very wide coverage area. A recent example of its application is the case of Stanislav Dmitrievsky, who was convicted under it on February 3, 2005 for publishing texts by Chechen separatist leaders.

What is missing?

Lack of coverage. The repression must be total, leaving no holes in which an extremist element could hide. And if the euphemism "extremist" is replaced by the familiar word "anti-Soviet", it becomes clear which legal model is being restored. A slightly forgotten past, article 70 of the Criminal Code of the RSFSR - the distribution of anti-Soviet literature, its production or storage.

But even the notorious Article 70 was more targeted, as it assumed intent. Anti-Soviet agitation and propaganda were recognized only as actions carried out "in order to undermine or weaken Soviet power." Draft article 280-1 proceeds from the sufficiency of one goal - the actual distribution. Any technical distributors, kioskers, warehouse workers will be able to get into this small network, who will be delivered something that suddenly turns out to be "extremist". In terms of nationalist "extremism", the money that sells the writings of Metropolitan John of St. Petersburg will fall under the article. In terms of the political ... what will be recognized as undermining state security will fall.

Article 280-1 is made for all types of distribution - from filmstrips to the Internet. But since the worshipers on Bolshaya Bronnaya suffered, as you know, from the Internet, it has a special place in the project. Both the Criminal Code and the Law "On Combating Extremist Activity" and the Code of Administrative Offenses offer promising additions.

Thus, in Article 280 of the Criminal Code, public calls for extremist activity using "public information and telecommunication networks, including the public Internet network" are equated with the dissemination of such calls through the media. Thus, "calls" gleaned, for example, from e-mail, will pull up to five years in prison.

The same applies to Article 282. The current wording applies only to inciting hatred or enmity, humiliation of human dignity, committed publicly or using the media. Now it turns out - and through the Internet. But the network also includes a significant share of the private, for example, the so-called "locked" parts of LiveJournal, access to which is opened only according to the list and may not be provided at all. Thus, a text or image available on the network to one or two users can serve as a basis for criminal liability.

In 2002, when the law on extremism was being adopted, online opposition was reduced to a figure of speech - an unspecified ban on the use of public communication networks for extremist activities. Krasheninnikov, who was then in charge of the work on the law, was a member of the Union of Right Forces, and they managed to abandon state regulation in the network. Now the same chairman of the committee is a member of United Russia, and article 12 of the law resurrects what he buried three years ago. The general restrictive norm is supplemented by a ban on using the Internet for "distributing extremist materials, advertising such materials, posting information indicating the location in such networks of a resource used to carry out extremist activities" . Moreover, it introduces a ban on providing "means of access to resources used to carry out extremist activities or means of searching in such networks of these resources" .

Providers are going to be obliged to fight extremism: "A person who manages the information content of a resource of a public communication network, as well as a person providing services for placing such a resource in a communication network, are obliged to take measures to prevent the use of such a resource to carry out extremist activities, including including for posting extremist materials, holding discussions and discussions containing calls for the implementation of extremist activities" .

Since it is not known what will be considered undermining state security and, accordingly, fall under anti-extremist materials, not only providers, but all site owners will have a choice: either fill their pages with official reports and music without words, or go into full-time or freelance relations with the FSB, the only organization aware of what "extremism" is. It is clear that all sorts of forums, chat rooms, guest books will either have to be closed or their content filtered around the clock. We'll have to get rid of links to other resources. Is it possible to be sure that some extremist appeal will not appear there due to an oversight?

The Internet will work according to the Turkmen type. Visitors to all synagogues in Russia will be able to pray in peace.

For the lack of vigilance on the anti-extremist front, providers, editors individually and the editorial office as a whole are proposed to be brought to administrative responsibility - beaten with a ruble. “Failure to take measures to block or delete extremist materials by a person providing data transmission and access services” to the network will entail a fine of up to 5,000 rubles for an individual (official), and up to 200,000 for a legal entity.

The developers of the project are not limited to extremist materials and censorship on the Internet. To complete the picture, the Criminal Code introduces tougher sanctions under Articles 282-1 and 282-2, under which a variety of activities can be summed up and called extremist - political, religious, informational, publishing. Mere participation in an extremist community or an extremist organization banned by the court, not even accompanied by any illegal actions, is assessed for a period of three to five years (currently - from two months to two years). A teenager came, sat at the meeting, listened - 5 years.

But even this is not enough. Another criminal article is being drafted - 282-3 ("Involvement in the commission of crimes of an extremist nature or other assistance in their commission"). For this thread, a large number of people can be pulled to court: from university professors (for "training a person" in order to commit extremist activities) to landlords, drivers and other accomplices guilty of providing extremists with "real estate, educational, printing or material and technical base, telephone, facsimile or other types of communication, information services or other material and technical means. A lone driver can get away with eight years. But the employees of the printing house that carried out the extremist order will answer in full: from seven to fifteen years with a fine of up to one million rubles or without it.

It all seems like a bad dream.

Meanwhile, human rights activists are involved in the discussion of the bill, hoping, at the expense of the bloody synagogue, to sign them under the approval of this nonsense. And the saddest thing is that there are such human rights activists.

Note. The text of the bill can be found in the "Documents of state bodies" section.