The State Duma adopted in main reading amendments on sanctions to discredit volunteers

The State Duma adopted in the second main reading a draft law on sanctions for discrediting participants in the military operation in Ukraine, including volunteers, and spreading fakes about them. On this Thursday, March 2, reported on the website of the lower house of parliament.

According to the amendments to the Criminal Code, liability for publicly discrediting the Russian armed forces will extend to volunteer formations, as well as to organizations and citizens “who assist in the performance of tasks assigned to the armed forces.”

Amendments are made to Articles 207.3 of the Criminal Code (spreading false information about the Russian army) and 280.3 (discrediting the Russian armed forces).

The penalty provided for by the first parts of the two articles is increased from three to five years in prison. Repeated discredit, which led to dangerous consequences (part 2 of article 280.3 of the Criminal Code), will threaten up to seven years in prison instead of five. The maximum term of imprisonment will be 15 years, fines – up to 5 million rubles.

Changes regarding liability for discrediting volunteers are also made in Article 20.3.3 of the Code of Administrative Offences. The amount of fines provided for by this article does not change, notes Duma TV. For citizens, discrediting the army or volunteers threatens fines of 30-50 thousand rubles, for officials – 100-200 thousand rubles, for legal entities – 300-500 thousand rubles.

The third and final reading of the bills is scheduled for March 14.

The authors of the amendments on sanctions to discredit the volunteers were the Chairman of the State Duma Vyacheslav Volodin and a group of deputies. The bill was introduced in the lower house of parliament on March 1.

Articles about discrediting the army and “fakes” about the Russian army appeared in the Code of Administrative Offenses and the Criminal Code in the spring of 2022. Alexey Gorinov, a Moscow city deputy, was the first to be convicted under the “false” article. In July 2022, he received seven years in a general regime colony. In December, politician Ilya Yashin was sentenced to eight and a half years in prison under the same article.