Bill on criminal liability for ‘justification and propaganda of extremism’ passes first reading in Russian Parliament

The Russian State Duma, the lower house of Russia’s Parliament, on Thursday approved the first reading of a bill introducing criminal liability for “public justification and propaganda of extremism”, as per the Duma’s website.

The majority of MPs, 278, voted in favour of the bill, with 54 voting against it and 16 abstaining. The second reading of the bill will take place on 27 October.

This bill will amend the already-existing article of Russia’s Criminal Code, “On public calls for extremism”. If it’s approved in all three readings necessary for a bill to pass the State Duma, criminal liability will start being applied not only to the acts of extremism but also to its “public justification” and “propaganda”. The maximum punishment under the article will remain the same, up to five years in prison.

According to the presented bill, “justification of extremism” is defined as “a public declaration recognising extremist ideology and practice of extremism as correct and in need of support and imitation”, while “propaganda of extremism” is “spreading information with the aim of forming an extremist ideology”.

One of the bill’s authors, Russian MP Vasily Piskaryov, said that it was, in part, a reaction to propaganda of mass shootings in schools and universities, which, according to him, takes place online.

There’s already a similar article in Russia’s Criminal Code, “On public calls for terrorist acts, public justification of terrorism, or propaganda of terrorism”, the punishment for which is up to seven years in prison.