Fines for extremist content: “targeted to targeted people”

There will be no delay in the entry into force of fines, despite criticism from Z-bloggers and Margarita Simonyan

The Russian authorities were unexpected by the sharp criticism of the amendments introducing administrative fines for searching “ extremist materials ” on the Internet, but public negativity will not prevent these fines from being introduced; they plan to apply them to “targeted” people, sources told Vestka.

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Interlocutors familiar with the process of developing and adopting this bill said that it “will not be about carpet bombing.” “There will be targeted application on “target” people and random application on everyone else. But the results of this application will be conveyed to the widest possible circle of citizens. For information,” one of the sources explained to Vorstka.

“There are no prerequisites that we will have to replay anything”

According to an interlocutor in the State Duma apparatus, “no one is going to roll back the amendments on fines for searching for “extremist” content.” “We see indignation, but there are no prerequisites that we will have to replay something,” he said.

An interlocutor in the presidential administration told Vorstka that the sharply negative reaction to the bill was unexpected. However, so far there has been no decision to return the document to the second reading and make amendments. “We will explain how it will work and why it is needed,” he explained.

A source in parliament noted that “technically, there are no problems” in changing the amendments adopted in the second reading - there is a long-ago “developed procedure for correcting the shortcomings noticed by the leadership.” Deputies can return the bill from the third reading to the second, during which deputies work on the parameters of future norms. During the current convocation alone, parliamentarians did this 26 times. Moreover, this concerned both “passing” laws and high-profile norms, for example, tightening responsibility for “drug propaganda.”

Even Z-bloggers and propagandists criticized the amendments

Amendments to the Code of Administrative Offenses, introducing fines of 3-5 thousand rubles for “deliberate search” for extremist information on the Internet, were adopted by the State Duma in the second reading on July 17. These changes were made at the end of the spring session of the State Duma to the bill previously adopted in the first reading (where the “fundamental” foundations of the proposed norms are considered) and are completely unrelated to political repression.

Russian Internet users could be fined if law enforcement officers discover that they “purposefully searched” for materials that are included in the register of extremist materials (it currently contains more than 5.3 thousand items) or fall under the laws on combating extremism. In order for the amendments to come into force, it is necessary for the State Duma to adopt them in the final third reading, then they must be approved by the Federation Council and signed by Vladimir Putin.

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In addition to Russian oppositionists, including representatives of parliamentary parties, the amendments were criticized by Z-bloggers, as well as propagandist Margarita Simonyan and the head of the Safe Internet League, Ekaterina Mizulina .

The first was indignant in her Telegram channel that she would not be able to “brand all kinds of extremist FBKs with shame.” Mizulina, known for her denunciations of bloggers and media figures, said that her Safe Internet League would suffer: approximately 30% of its activities are monitoring and complaints.

At the same time, the Kremlin published an official instruction from Vladimir Putin on the need to adopt “additional restrictions” for messengers created in unfriendly countries. The first deputy chairman of the Duma Committee on Digital Technologies, United Russia member Anton Gorelkin, has already announced that WhatsApp , the most popular instant messenger in Russia, will “with a very high degree of probability” be included in the “restricted” applications.

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