Translated material
The State Duma introduced a punishment of up to 5 years for damage to military monuments and the "desecration" of eternal lights, including abroad
The amendments adopted today by the deputies of the Duma are made in Art. 243.4 of the Criminal Code. Criminal liability will occur, including for crimes on it outside Russia, said the State Duma speaker Vyacheslav Volodin.
The “desecration” of military graves and memorials <...> will be punishable by a fine of up to 3 million rubles or imprisonment for up to 3 years.
If the “desecration” is committed with aggravating circumstances, then the responsibility will occur in the second part. It provides for fines up to 5 million rubles and imprisonment for up to 5 years.
By introducing a bill to consideration by the State Duma in April, the government indicated that the legislation did not establish criminal liability for the desecration of memorial facilities and structures that are not symbols of military glory of Russia and the objects of the burial. Until now, in such cases, things have been initiated under the article on the “rehabilitation of Nazism” (Article 354.1 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation).
For example - in cases associated with eternal flame. Since 2022, at least 78 similar cases have been instituted in Russia, and calculated the OVD-info project*.
In the Stavropol Territory, two men were sentenced to 2.5 years in a colony-settlement for giving up their legs at the memorial. In the Leningrad region they started a case after children 10-11 years old threw the eternal fire with snowballs. In the Krasnodar Territory, the reason for the case was that the schoolchildren threw the memorial with flowers, and it went out . In the Altai Territory, the case was started due to the fact that the teenagers dried wet things by the eternal fire.