Translated material
Verbs - burn!
FSB is trying to forbid reporters to write about the army and space
The FSB approved the list of information, for the collection and distribution of which the status of a “foreign agent” and criminal liability can threaten. The list consists of 60 points, not one of them is a state secret, however, according to the special services, this information can be used by foreign states, foreign citizens and international organizations “against the security of Russia”.
“New” spoke with the leading lawyer of the Media Protection Center Galina Arapova (the organization was recognized as a “foreign agent”) and the lawyer of the human rights organization “Soldiers' mothers” Anton Shcherbak about what the FSB order threatens journalists and NGOs, who somehow work with the sphere of military-civil relations and space industry.
In December 2020, the State Duma in the third reading adopted amendments to the law “On measures to influence persons involved in violations of the fundamental freedoms of a person, rights and freedoms of citizens of the Russian Federation” (historically known as the “Law of Dima Yakovlev”, adopted in 2012). According to amendments, individuals and organizations engaged in “targeted” collection of information in the field of military and military-technical activities of the Russian Federation can receive the status of “foreign agent”, the receipt of which foreign states and citizens can be “used against security” by Russia.
So, according to this amendment, a citizen of Russia or other state before collecting information from the FSB list must independently contact the Ministry of Justice with a statement about its inclusion in the register of “foreign agents”. If he does not do this, he is facing criminal liability.
Some points from the list approved by Order of the FSB No. 379 of September 28, 2021, look like this:
information on the assessment and forecasts of the development of a military-political, strategic situation;
information on compliance with the rule of law and the “moral and psychological climate” in the troops;
information about the passage by citizens of Russia of military service;
information on the procurement carried out by the army - goods, works, services for the needs of troops, including information about the only suppliers of goods, work, services;
personal data on military personnel and members of their families;
information about the target programs of Roscosmos, information on the procedure, terms and volumes of financing of the company;
Information about the problems, including financial and economic, restraining the development of Roscosmos.
In fact, this imposes a huge number of restrictions on journalists, who, for example, write materials about hazing in the army, because the list has a separate point on the “moral and psychological climate” in the troops. The same applies to relevant committees and human rights organizations working in the field of military-political relations.
“I’m afraid that if the journalist has at least some foreign financing or“ organizational and methodological assistance ”from a foreign source (I remind you that these include Russian“ NKO-foreigners ”and friends from other countries who have sent money for a birthday gift), then it is better not to deal with this topic at all. Since several points of the order directly include grandfathers to information, the distribution of which is now fraught with the status of a “foreign agent”, and if you do not put yourself on accounting in the Ministry of Justice, then this immediately entails the risk of criminal liability and imprisonment of up to five years.
Now the topics of hazing, murders and suicides in the army will become the topics of silence, ”says Galina Arapova, lawyer of the media protection center.
According to Arapova, for organizations that protect the rights of military personnel, conscripts and their parents, this order can threaten “higher risks” than just the “dick of the“ foreign agent ”. So, personal risks will now have individual employees and lawyers who work in such NPOs, because they can be recognized as individuals who perform the function of a “foreign agent”: “If the NPOs or employees personally have foreign money, they will also have a risk of criminal liability in the event of continuing work in this area. The implementation of this work is connected precisely with the targeted collection of information about crimes in the army and their investigations. ”
Employees of relevant organizations will not be able to publish press releases, lead sites and social networks, and, as the lawyer notes, even speak out in the courts, since these trials are not among the closed ones: “Therefore, the entry of court decisions into the GAS base“ Justice ”will automatically make this information public with all the ensuing consequences for the participants in the process that provided evidence and information to the court. Participants in the process will be afraid to give comments to the press, the press, respectively, will avoid coverage of such cases. There will be an information vacuum around the problems of crime in the army environment and hazing as a special case. The absence of such information, however, will not become a solution to the problem, on the contrary, will become beneficial soil for their prosperity, ”says Arapova.
This is also indicated by the lawyer of the human rights organization "Soldiers' Mothers of St. Petersburg" Anton Shcherbak. According to him, that this list would be adopted sooner or later, they knew, therefore, they were ready for the possible reformatting of activities.
Since 1991, “Soldiers' mothers of St. Petersburg” have been protecting the rights of conscripts, military personnel, citizens who are undergoing alternative civil service, and members of their families. Shcherbak notes that this law will lead to the fact that people will be even more afraid to defend their rights, and possibly completely cease to contact the relevant organizations: “Over the past seven years, we have noted a reduction in appeals [to us], but, according to official statistics, over the past six months, the military prosecutor’s military, and then the military investigative department noted that the number of violent crimes, suicides and the abandonment has grown by a third. parts.
We will find use for ourselves [if we are closed], but in the minus from this society as a whole and those parents whose children will be left alone with the system. ”
Commenting on the list of information of the FSB, Shcherbak notes that anyone can now become a “ino-agent”: if the mother of a soldier who has suffered in the army receives help from some foreign charity fund and at the same time shares the history of her son, then it can be included in the register. Since almost every wording in the list has a very wide interpretation. For example, the item on “organizational and methodological assistance” from a foreign person or state does not explain what is meant by this help. If the journalist writes the text, one way or another associated with the military or space sphere, and at the same time takes a comment for him from some foreign specialist, he can be entered into the register.
“I’m afraid that everything foreign can be attributed to organizational and methodological assistance. Perhaps I am exaggerating, but foreign software comes to mind that we use when working with information online. Who knows, there are great surprises for us, and initially the unlimited possibilities of interpreting and applying this norm by the authorities are laid down with this formulation. In the conditions of the widest international integration, the abundance of foreign computer equipment and mainly foreign cell phones, as well as safe software, the use of all this can be regarded as “organizational and methodological assistance”. A very dangerous and extremely fuzzy termination of the term, which is unlikely to meet the requirements of the quality of the law in understanding the standards of the European Convention, and even in the understanding of our Constitutional Court, ”says Galina Arapova.
Another difficulty in this list is that it is completely unclear whether it has “retroactive power”. For example, before the FSB published its list, a person was engaged in collecting information that is indicated in it, is it possible to recognize it as a “foreign agent”? Lawyer Anton Shcherbak believes that it is possible: “The law itself does not speak directly about this, but theoretically for the use of information collected before the adoption of the list, you can get into the register. Everything has been done so cunningly there: we do not have foreign financing now, but by consulting a soldier, we collect information about him that this list prohibits, that is, the number of the military unit, F.I.O. The military, by the way, personal data there are a separate paragraph, the location of the unit. We collect all this, and, for example, if with such a work some person from Spain, as it was with one notorious organization, will throw us small money as a donat, then we will be recognized as foreign agents. ”
Galina Arapova notes that according to general rules, criminal liability should not be applied to the events and actions that took place before their criminalization, that is, before the introduction of part 330.1 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation in the Criminal Code 330.1.
“Please note that this is not so much about the publication [information] as about the collection of data that, when receiving them, can be used by foreign entities against the security of the Russian Federation.
That is, it is not necessary to purposefully transmit information to someone, it is enough that they are in the public domain, and in the case of their fellow foreigners, which you may not even know, they can hypothetically be used to the detriment of Russia. That is, everything here is in the subjunctive mood. Whether the sanction will apply to situations when the information was collected and published before the introduction of criminal liability, and after the introduction of criminal liability, it was not removed from open access and, thus, still, remaining affordable, can be received by foreigners and used against Russia's security, it is difficult to say. I do not exclude. The wording of the law formally allows you to apply this, ”Arapova notes.
According to the lawyer of the “soldiers' mothers”, these vague formulations lead to the fact that the activities of many organizations are becoming impossible: “Now only those NGOs can exist as the authorities and those who really work for the benefit of people hang the sword of Damocles.”