The President signed the Klishas Law

On July 22, 2014, the President of the Russian Federation signed a law toughening punishment for “calls for separatism” and extending its effect to statements made on the Internet.

On July 22, 2014, it became known that Russian President Vladimir Putin signed the law “On Amendments to Article 280.1 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation,” toughening punishment for “calls for separatism” and extending its effect to statements made on the Internet.

Let us remind you that the law was adopted in the first reading on July 2, 2014, and already passed the second reading on July 4. On July 9, 23014, the law was approved by the Federation Council.

The law toughens the punishment under the recently entered into force Article 280.1 of the Criminal Code, the composition of which is formulated as follows: “ Public calls for actions aimed at violating the territorial integrity of the Russian Federation .”

We have a negative attitude towards the introduced Art. 280.1 CC. The current definition of extremist activity does contain a clause about a violent change in the constitutional order and violation of the integrity of the Russian Federation. This point, as has been noted more than once, is formulated incorrectly (see, for example, the opinion of the Venice Commission regarding the federal law “On Combating Extremist Activities”), since it is not obvious that the definition of “violent” refers not only to a change in the system, but also to a violation of integrity. We continue to insist that only violent separatism has anything to do with extremism.

Further tightening of penalties under this article and, most importantly, extending its effect to statements on the Internet in general seems to us an attack on freedom of speech that could lead to unlawful prosecution.

Sources

• Putin has tightened responsibility for calls for separatism // Rosbalt. 2014. July 22.