www.veteranstoday.com By Alexey Viryasov for RT/Russian State-Controlled Media
People found guilty of spreading disinformation about the Russian Army could soon be heavily punished under proposed amendments to the law, the national parliament has warned amid Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine.
On Thursday, the Russian parliamentary Committee on State Construction and Legislation approved a bill that will make it a crime to share false information about the operations of the nation’s armed forces, as well as calls for anti-Russian sanctions.
The bill seeks to ban “public actions aimed at discrediting the Russian Armed Forces.” If the legislation is adopted, citizens will be barred from slandering the country’s troops as they seek “to protect the interests of the Russian Federation and its people, and maintain international peace and security.”
Under the draft proposal, the punishment for libeling the Russian Army could result in a fine of up to nearly $3,000 or five years in jail. Time behind bars is reserved for actions that are deemed to have inflicted significant damage to national security.
An amendment to another article of the criminal code proposes a severe punishment of up to 15 years in prison for deliberately spreading false information about troops.
