The whales are swimming into the zone

On May 25, Senator Elena Mizulina proposed "returning to the discussion of the issue of lowering the age of criminal responsibility for minors"

Inspiration did not come to the senator (and in the recent past, to a Just Russia deputy) from scratch. The reason is a peppy report from the Investigative Committee: law enforcement officers managed to figure out the recently famous “Eva Reich”. Eva Reich is one of the heroines of Novaya Gazeta's sensational investigation of the Group of Death. According to the author, Galina Mursaliyeva, Eva Reich is one of the leaders of a mysterious sect that incites teenagers to commit suicide through suicide propaganda on social networks banned in the Russian Federation.

So it turned out that the insidious sectarian is an underage resident of Omsk. She is only 13, which means that she cannot be imprisoned. It is possible to apply "administrative measures or measures of an educational nature, up to placement in a closed special institution for adolescents." But not in jail. Such is the trouble with debunkers of conspiracies.

The senator follows the well-trodden and understandable path: what to do if you can’t plant, but you want to? Change the law so that you can plant. And here is one very important conclusion from the story of the discussion around the Novaya Gazeta article.

Mursaliyeva's text was criticized, exposed and ridiculed. It has generated a lot of important debate about whether you are even able to comprehend the wonderful world of the teenage Internet in your thirties and forties. About what creepypastas are and what “crying Squidward” is famous for. About whether the logo of a company that produces underwear, stretched in Photoshop, can be considered a satanic sign (Mursaliyeva, for example, considered it). And even about what is more likely to bring a teenager to suicide - a nightly reading of the public "Whales are swimming up" or a total perusal of his correspondence with his parents. All this is interesting, and some of it is even important.

But yet another legislative initiative by Mizulina shows the most important and simple thing. The state and its agents react uniformly and predictably to any external stimuli, inventing new punitive measures. And this, in turn, imposes certain restrictions on the journalistic community. After all, Novaya Gazeta spoke out directly, explaining the publication of the Groups of Death by the desire to ensure that “the gears of the law enforcement system spin at breakneck speed” in order to save children's lives. This is, no joke, a noble desire. The gears, as we see, are spinning - both in the law enforcement system and in the legislative one. Some catch a 13-year-old girl, others think how, if not her, then future criminals with bows rolled up in prison. And it doesn’t matter at all what the agents of the state are really concerned about - self-promotion, lobbying considerations, or a sincere desire to save someone. It will not affect the outcome of their actions.

The senator follows the well-trodden and understandable path: what to do if you can’t plant, but you want to? Change the law so that you can plant

Of course, you can write whatever you think is right. But if at the same time you touch the sphere of intellectual freedom (this may seem ridiculous, but teenage groups on the Internet are also part of the sphere of intellectual freedom) and call on the authorities to sort it out and punish, be prepared: the reaction of the state with a probability of 99 percent will be at the same time ridiculous , and ruthless. They will not deal with those, but will punish everyone.

And then the questions will not be to the state - and so it is clear what to expect from it, but to those who pointed out to the state the next opportunity to narrow the space of freedom.