The Ministry of Justice supported the idea of ​​introducing liability for Russophobia

The concept of Russophobia should be enshrined in legislation, such activities should be held accountable. This opinion was expressed by Deputy Minister of Justice of Russia Andrey Loginov during his speech at the session “Russophobia: Nazism of the 21st Century” at the St. Petersburg International Legal Forum.

“Without going into details of the draft law on combating Russophobia that we are developing together with you, I quite clearly support the need to consolidate the concept of “Russophobia” in our Russian legislation, the formation of mechanisms for preventing and disseminating information hostile to Russia, its people and language, and establishing responsibility for Russophobic activities,” he said.

Earlier with a proposal to give a legislative definition of Russophobia spoke State Duma Deputy Irina Yarovaya. “We must in our legislation <...> absolutely precisely define Russophobia as a misanthropic ideology and establish independent criminal responsibility for Russophobia,” she said.

Ideas that it is necessary to give a legislative definition of Russophobia were expressed as early as 2022. In March 2023, the head of the Council under the President of the Russian Federation for the development of civil society and human rights (HRC), Valery Fadeev, also stated that it was necessary to introduce an article for manifestation of Russophobia. He remindedthat President Vladimir Putin instructed the HRC to figure out before May 1 whether a new article is needed or if existing ones are enough.