Davankov appealed to the Supreme Court for clarification on fines for likes

Vice Speaker of the State Duma Vyacheslav Davankov appealed to the Supreme Court for clarification on the legality of initiating criminal cases for likes. According to message Mr. Davankov, he intends to achieve a specific ruling by the plenum of the Supreme Court on this issue in order to avoid legal uncertainty in the law.

Vyacheslav Davankov explained that a year ago the faction of the New People party submitted to the State Duma a bill to abolish punishment for likes on the Internet. Now the relevant State Duma committee has given a negative review of the document, since the law does not provide for the initiation of cases for likes.

According to Mr. Davankov, judicial practice contradicts the review of the relevant committee: people are tried for “expressing emotions in the form of marking publications on the Internet.” For this reason, the Deputy Speaker wants clarification from the Supreme Court. “We need a specific resolution from the plenum of the Supreme Court: if liking cannot be considered an offense, this must be communicated to all judges. And if, in the opinion of the Supreme Court, it is still possible to judge for likes, we will seek amendments to the law,” wrote Mr. Davankov.

“New People” are trying to promote a bill to abolish fines for likes from March 2023. In September, the government did not support the March document due to “ambiguous interpretation” of the terms. In the same month, the authors of the project changed the document and submitted it for consideration again. The initiative included the inclusion of Article 20.3.1. (“Inciting hostility”) and 20.3.3. (“Discredit of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation”) of the Code of Administrative Offenses of the Russian Federation of amendments stating that the specified articles do not include “expression of emotions in the form of marking publications” on social networks. The project was also not supported.

In January 2024 “RIA News“wrote that a similar initiative was again included in the Duma database (date not specified). According to the agency, the government again rejected the project. In March, MP Anton Tkachev said that the faction had prepared a new, similar document.

Polina Motyzlevskaya