The crime of reading a new Russian law

The Russian government has developed a new crime for the citizens: “Search intentionally and access extremist materials.” Once again, legislators use a familiar tactic that is ground through other repressive laws:

• First, take a law that has already passed his first reading (in this case a “disruptive administrative penalty for certain violations in the area of transport and logistics”)).
• Then add changes before the second reading that radically change the original intention of the invoice.

This approach enables legislators to quickly pursue the passage of a law and to reduce the time for the public debate drastically. It is also prevented from having to explain the initiative at all – after all, only an explanatory note is published if a legislation is introduced for the first time in the state Duma.

The legislator approved the new provision on “intentionally according to extremist materials and accessible”. In the second reading of the invoice on July 17th.

The answer is not that easy. The new administrative code article shows two ways to determine what is qualified.

• The first is self -explanatory: a table of contents is considered “extremist” if it is contained in the public federal list of extremist materials.
• The second opens the door to wide and arbitrary enforcement. In this case, the authors of the change application refer to the definition of the federal law “to combat extremist activities”. This includes documents or information that “calls for extremist activities or justify or legitimize the need for such an activity”.

According to Russian law, the definition of extremist activities is extremely broad. It covers everything, from “terrorist activities” to the use of symbols or branding, which are referred to with organizations that are called “extremists” in Russia, such as Alexey Navalny's anti-corruption foundation and the non-existent “international LGBT movement”, which were called “extremists”.

In Russia, Meduza is referred to as a “foreign agent” and “undesirable organization”. This is uncomfortable and carries its own risks (which is why we no longer accept donations from Russia and have no employees there). But even according to Russian law, it is currently not a crime, just after and read to search for and read our articles.

Strangely, not still not watched by Leconka, a newspaper that has now been dissolved, which the Russian authorities banned from the Russian authorities at the beginning of Vladimir Putin's presidency. But of course the government does not prevent the government from describing media as “extremist”, which would effectively make it illegal to read it. This is what is known as a criminalization of reading – and this new calculation is a step in this direction.

Yes, yes – although it is unclear what could come next. The law expressly states that a violation only applies to the search for “extremist” content, especially on the Internet.

It's hard to say, but it doesn't seem that way. In order to remain liable, one person probably has to do two things: looking for the forbidden content And Use it (for example by clicking on a link).

In other articles of the administrative code, one of several actions is sufficient to represent a violation, the word “or” is used. For example:

• Article 5.12: Production, distribution or publication Campaign materials against election and referendum laws
• Article 7.17: Destroy or damage the property of another
• Article 8.5: Hide or fake Environmental information

But the new article 13.53 begins with the expression: “Intentionally looking for extremist materials and access them. “The sentence in the original version of the Bill was even easier:”Search and access Extremist materials. “

Technically speaking yes. The new article does not indicate any exceptions based on a person's motif, for “extremist” materials.

It is unclear whether activists who report other crimes in connection with banned materials are burdened themselves – but they are already nervous. For example, Yekaterina Mizulina, head of the Safe -Internet -League of the Zensur -Lobby thesis, criticized the change and said that her organization had to stop monitoring the “extremist communities” and the transfer of information about her to the Interior Ministry of Russia.

Each criminal offense will bear an administrative fine of 3,000 to 5,000 rubles (33 to 55 US dollars).

For repeat offices, there is currently no strong increase in fine or the criminal complaint. But it is worth changing in the future.

Police officers and FSB agents will be responsible for violations of offenses.

However, the police can only issue a report if they find clear signs of a crime -for example, if an official personally discovers “extremist” search queries or visits to “extremist” pages in their telephone or computer browser history. FSB agents will not have this restriction. You have the authority to collect such information remote.

In any case, however, it is the dishes that check these cases and decide on punishments.

The FSB can use data from information systems that you can access to search for perpetrators.

For example, thanks to the close cooperation with the Russian social media service VK (and several other so-called “information sales organizers”), security officers can see who searched for banned content on social media and then clicked down on left or downloaded relatives.

At the moment we can only give general advice.

• Always use a VPN to make it difficult for the authorities to pursue the websites you have visited.
• Try to use search engines that do not work with the Russian authorities, or – even better – that do not collect any user data at all (like Duckduckgo).
• Do not save your browser history or delete it regularly.
• Keep your phones and computers protected against unauthorized access.

It is also worth considering what happened in Belarus to get signs of what comes to Russia.

In Belarus, the “criminalization of reading” is widespread and has long been applied to independent media. Aliaksan Pushkina, Communication Director of the Independent Outlet Zerkalo, explained how it works as follows: