Russian senators pass proposed law introducing fines for accessing ‘extremist’ content online

The Federation Council, the upper house of Russia’s parliament, near-unanimously passed a new piece of legislation on Friday that would fine anyone accessing “extremist” material online, setting the stage for Vladimir Putin to sign the bill into law.

The proposed amendments, which the lower house approved on Tuesday in less than a week after first considering them last Wednesday, would introduce fines of up to 5,000 rubles (€55) for those searching for or accessing “extremist” material online, such as LGBT-related content or YouTube videos by Kremlin critics.

During the vote Friday, 164 Russian senators supported the bill, with one abstaining. At the time of publication, individual voting records have not yet been made public.

During the parliamentary debate, one senator, Lyudmila Narusova, criticised the fact that amendments to the bill had been introduced “on the quiet”, and expressed her hesitancy to vote for a bill that “lumped together” transport and freight forwarding regulations, measures against phone fraud, and extremist content, according to Russian journalist Farida Rustamova.

Also during the debate, senator Andrey Klishas stated that the law would only be applied to individuals under criminal investigation, and not to the general public, assuring citizens that “no one will stop people and check their phones”.

If the bill is signed into law by Putin, this will mark the first time that there will be legal repercussions for anyone viewing prohibited content in Russia, with the changes due to come into force on 1 September.