For the justification and propaganda of extremism, it is proposed to prosecute as for extremist appeals

State Duma deputies on Tuesday proposed to introduce criminal liability for “public justification and propaganda of extremism”, expanding the existing article of the Criminal Code on public calls for extremist activity. In their opinion, this is necessary, first of all, to combat “schoolshooting” – massacres in educational institutions. True, the government, while supporting the idea of ​​the project as a whole, pointed to some redundancy of the measures proposed by its authors. And experts believe that the very concept of extremism is too loose and its “justification” may include, for example, “deliberate distortion of history.”

On July 18, a group of State Duma deputies from United Russia, headed by the chairman of the security committee, Vasily Piskarev, introduced a draft amendment to Art. 280 of the Criminal Code (CC), which provides for liability for “public calls for extremist activities” (punishment – from a fine of up to 300 thousand rubles to imprisonment for up to five years).

United Russia proposes to supplement this composition by providing for responsibility for “public justification of extremism” or its propaganda.

Under the “justification”, it is specified in the note to the updated article, it is necessary to understand “a public statement on the recognition of the ideology and practice of extremism as correct, in need of support and imitation.” Propaganda, according to another note, should be considered “the activity of disseminating materials and information aimed at forming in a person the ideology of extremism, the belief in its attractiveness or the idea of ​​the permissibility of extremist activity.”

“This bill is our reaction, among other things, to the propaganda of the so-called mass shooting — mass murders in educational institutions and kindergartens,” Mr. Piskarev explained in his Telegram channel. The justification of such crimes and an attempt to present them as “fashionable” among the youth through the Internet and social networks is an extremely dangerous trend, the deputy emphasized.

The explanatory note to the document also emphasizes that it is aimed at “preventing manifestations of radicalism, primarily among minors and young people,” and massacres in schools and kindergartens are cited as an example of such manifestations.

The deputies consider the facts of justifying such crimes as “a purposeful activity, including with foreign participation, aimed at the decomposition of our society, at leveling Russian cultural and historical values.”

The adoption of the proposed amendments will help the development of Russia as a “big multinational country”, which “rejects all attempts to impose pseudo-values ​​of dehumanization and moral degradation from the outside,” the authors of the bill summarize.

In the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation, no comments and proposals were made to the initiative of the deputies, it follows from the response to the bill sent to the State Duma back in January of this year. But the government considered it necessary to note some excess of the proposed innovations, since the relevant actions can already be qualified under the current articles of the Criminal Code and the Code of Administrative Offenses (CAO). These are, in particular, articles providing for liability for the production and distribution of extremist materials (Article 20.29 of the Code of Administrative Offenses), propaganda or public demonstration of prohibited symbols (Article 20.3 of the Code of Administrative Offenses or Article 282.4 of the Criminal Code), public calls to violate territorial integrity (Article 20.3 .2 of the Code of Administrative Offenses or Article 282.1 of the Criminal Code), incitement to hatred or enmity, as well as humiliation of human dignity (Article 20.31 of the Code of Administrative Offenses or Article 282 of the Criminal Code). Thus, it is noted in the government’s response to the bill (it is dated April 3), its implementation will lead to a conflict of these norms with Art. 280 of the Criminal Code and difficulties in their differentiation in practice. However, subject to the finalization of the project, the government still supports it, follows from the document.

To date, the comments made by the government have been taken into account and all objections have already been removed, one of the authors of the bill, deputy chairman of the Duma security committee, Ernest Valeev, assured Kommersant. This is a normal legislative process, he added.

Experts, however, tend to agree with the government and assess the deputy’s initiative as excessive.

The Columbine movement, which unites supporters of schoolshooting, has already been recognized as terrorist in Russia and banned, recalls Alexander Verkhovsky, an expert on anti-extremist legislation. According to him, over the past years, there has been an active increase in the number of cases specifically under the article on justifying terrorism (Article 205.2 of the Criminal Code): according to judicial statistics, in 2022 the number of those convicted under this article increased by 35% (under the article on incitement to extremism – by 20%). As regards Art. 280 of the Criminal Code, it was still believed that the corpus delicti under it arises when there is a call for some kind of action, the expert explains. But if the proposed amendments are adopted, then a simple approval of any organization recognized as extremist (there are 103 of them on the list of the Ministry of Justice, last updated on July 17) or its members will be enough to initiate a criminal case, Mr. Verkhovsky adds.

The purpose of the bill is to limit public discussion on topics that the authorities consider extremist, Stanislav Seleznev, a lawyer for the Network Freedoms project, believes. Meanwhile, the definition of this concept in Russian legislation itself is very vague, which opens up scope for the law enforcer (the investigation of cases under Article 280 is assigned to the FSB), the expert points out. So, in the explanatory note, the deputies refer to the National Security Strategy of the Russian Federation, which refers to the manifestations of extremism, including the organization and holding of uncoordinated public events, the erosion of traditional spiritual and moral values, the destabilization of the domestic political situation and even the deliberate distortion of history, recalls Mr. Seleznev. Moreover, in this case, the authors do not even offer a variant of administrative prejudice, which allows people to correct their behavior after law enforcement agencies are interested in them, the lawyer says.

In turn, Dmitry Gorbunov, a partner at Rustam Kurmaev & Partners law firm, notes that the need to detail legislation arises when circumstances begin to appear in society that previously fell out of the control of the state: “Obviously, geopolitical changes have aggravated relations in society that Previously, they practically did not take place, – the expert states. – In particular, it can be argued that after the start of the SVO, attempts to undermine state integrity by foreign special services intensified. The state reacts to such manifestations and tries to stop them at the legislative level.”

Anastasia Kornya