St. Petersburg "Yabloko" called for the abolition of norms punishing fakes about the army and its discrediting

The "Yayuloka" faction in the legislature of St. Petersburg has prepared a draft appeal to the Chairman of the State Duma.

On January 16, 2023, it became known that the Yabloko faction prepared and submitted to the Legislative Assembly of St. Petersburg a draft appeal to the Chairman of the State Duma, Vyacheslav Volodin, demanding that Art. 20.3.3 of the Code of Administrative Offenses on publicly discrediting the actions of officials and using the RF Armed Forces abroad, art. 280.3 of the Criminal Code, punishing for repeated discrediting, and Art. 207.3 of the Criminal Code on the dissemination of deliberately false information about the use of the RF Armed Forces.

The authors of the draft appeal pointed out that these articles deprive people of the opportunity to receive objective information about what is happening in the country and the world; in fact, under the threat of administrative or criminal punishment, it is forbidden to distribute materials about a special military operation, except for those published by official sources, and freely express an opinion about what is happening, and thereby violate the right of citizens to receive and disseminate information, enshrined in Art. 29 of the Constitution of the Russian Federation. Representatives of Yabloko stressed that the existence of these articles prevents journalists from carrying out their professional activities, leads to their persecution and dismissal, and many media sites have been blocked on the basis of relevant laws.

Recall that the mentioned norms - amendments to the Code of Administrative Offenses (CAO) and the Criminal Code (CC) - were adopted by the State Duma on March 4 on an emergency basis and on the same day approved by the Federation Council and signed by the president . The laws concerned calls for sanctions, spreading fake news about the Russian armed forces, discrediting them, and calls for "preventing their use." Additional amendments dated March 25 provided protection against fakes and discredit also for the foreign activities of Russian government agencies: it was included in the norms adopted on March 4. All three articles appearing in the appeal of St. Petersburg deputies are actively applied, more than five thousand cases of bringing citizens to justice under Art. 20.3.3 of the Code of Administrative Offenses, dozens of cases - under Art. 280.3 of the Criminal Code, more than 130 - under Art. 207.3 CC

We welcome the initiative of the St. Petersburg Yabloko. From our point of view, norms similar to the above should not be in the legislation, since they excessively restrict freedom of expression, and opinions on issues of special public importance. We regard it as unlawful persecution for critical statements regarding the political course and specific actions of the authorities, including in relation to events in Ukraine, if such statements do not contain calls for the use of violence or other clearly illegal, in the generally accepted sense, actions.

Sources

• Hope Yarmula. Impassable Initiative // Kommersant. 2023. January 16.