The vibe is not imba

In 2025, the Russian language, the Internet, “foreign agents” and children will suffer the most from bans

Officials and deputies ended the old year with yet another ban - as they say, under the Christmas tree, and in the new year, having rested, they began to ban it as soon as they went to work. Among the main “gifts”: Putin signed the “Strategy for Countering Extremism.” Now, in addition to the vaguely determined concept of “extremism” - which does not prevent people from being imprisoned for it ten years ago - “Russophobia” has also appeared in the lexicon of the authorities, which will also be determined “by eye” - serial informers and operatives. It is absolutely unclear what falls under it, but, as lawyers said in those days when the law was still in effect, judicial practice will show. And she, of course, will show it.

“Speak only in words that are permitted”

This is exactly what the administrations of some Russian schools are proposing, where they have begun to ban youth slang. Thus, in Voronezh Lyceum No. 7 the following words are prohibited : quadrober, normis, altushka, imba, fifty-two, minus and plus vibe, respectively. In the Nizhny Novgorod Lyceum, the list of words is not much different, but in addition to these, the name of the rapper-scandalist “P. Diddy."

Language, along with “foreign agents”, the Internet and children, risks becoming one of the main targets for bullying this year. Some kind of “register of languages” of the Russian Federation is already being created. The trouble here is one thing: experts, as always, will not be asked and will make it up on their knees, someone will be forgotten... And then what: it will be impossible to speak in an unregistered language, so as not to get imprisoned for extremism or Russophobia?

If only because the FSB has already recognized the word “Karelia” in the Karelian language as terrorist, along with the non-existent “Belgorod People’s Republic”.

They also decided to eradicate Anglicisms; the law was submitted to the Duma. We recommend starting with offshore companies (preferably in their physical embodiment) and talk shows. And only then attack investors, realtors, shorts, crosswords, sweaters, speakers and clowns. However, the latter are unlikely to be eradicated, especially in politics, just like doping in sports.

It is unknown when the time for borrowing from French will come, but then the native speech will definitely lose almost 30% of its words.

Viber blocked, YouTube strangled

Closer to the New Year holidays, YouTube practically stopped working for all providers, including mobile operators. Roskomnadzor saw grounds “to take action against YouTube,” TASS reported. Although Russian courts do not think so: already at the beginning of the year, the plaintiff was denied claims against RKN for slowing down video hosting - the judges decided that RKN had nothing to do with it.

However: “Numerous violations of Russian legislation, disrespect for our country and citizens are grounds for taking action against YouTube. We have enough tools to motivate the company in such a situation; the right to use them remains with the Russian side,” the department’s press service reported.

Roskomnadzor also limited access to the Viber messenger “due to violation of the requirements of Russian legislation.”

FROM RKN REPORT
“Compliance with [the requirements] is necessary to prevent threats of using the messenger for terrorist and extremist purposes, recruiting citizens to commit them, selling drugs, and also in connection with the posting of illegal information.”

Viber is in third place in terms of popularity of instant messengers in Russia. It is inferior to WhatsApp* (they also sharpen their teeth on it, and besides, it belongs to inveterate extremists) and Telegram.

Is advertising of non-alcoholic beer banned?

State Duma deputy, eternal noise maker Sultan Khamzaev, said that he plans to achieve a ban on advertising of soft drinks produced by alcohol brands.

“I am against any form of alcohol advertising, including advertising of so-called non-alcoholic beer, and I will strive to ensure that alcohol brands are not advertised under the guise of non-alcoholic products.”

Immediately the rest of the legislators perked up, feeling the untrodden clearing. We remembered about children's champagne and energy drinks.

Without Russian language and without education

The Federation Council approved, and Putin signed, a ban on the enrollment in schools of children of foreign citizens who do not speak Russian. The law will come into force on April 1, 2025.

It is proposed to amend Article 78 of the Law “On Education” and add clauses on “testing for knowledge of the Russian language when admitting children of foreigners and stateless persons to school” and “prohibiting the admission to school of children who have not passed such testing.” Nothing is said about the testing itself and evaluation criteria.

"Foreign agents"

The State Duma last year adopted a law according to which citizens recognized as “foreign agents” are required to open a special ruble account to credit income from the sale of real estate or its rental, as well as profit from interest on deposits.

From March 1, income from the sale and rental of real estate, royalties and profits from interest on deposits will be credited to a special ruble account. It will be prohibited to withdraw money abroad, and it will be possible to use the money only after exclusion from the register. Which, you know, is impossible.

The law was passed unanimously and quickly approved by senators and the president.

That is, people have been deprived of their sources of income, since most of the “foreign agents” are people of creative professions.

But they decided not to stop there either. During the first meeting of the spring session of the Duma, the chairman of the State Duma commission to investigate the facts of interference of foreign states in the internal affairs of Russia, Piskarev (former prosecutor) said:

“The State Duma Commission has prepared a package of bills aimed at suppressing the illegal activities of foreign agents. We want to protect our most sensitive sectors - education and pedagogy - from influence from foreign agents completely. We cannot allow foreign agents, who today are the main conductors of anti-Russian activities, to have influence on our education and enlightenment system. We also plan to introduce amendments to Article 1.8 of the Code of Administrative Offences, which clarify the procedure for bringing foreign agents to justice. Today, a huge number of foreign agents, while abroad and breaking the law, cannot be brought to justice, since there is no mechanism for this. We are introducing such a mechanism.”

With the participation of Sergei Sokolov