The State Duma proposed introducing punishment for bloggers and coaches into the Code of Administrative Offenses and the Criminal Code

A working group of the State Duma, headed by Vice-Speaker of the Lower House Pyotr Tolstoy and First Deputy Chairman of the Education Committee Yana Lantratova, will discuss the introduction of amendments to the Code of Administrative Offenses and the Criminal Code on separate punishment for bloggers who provide educational or information and advisory services in violation of the law, the newspaper reported.News”.

A meeting on this issue will be held today, March 21, together with representatives of the Ministry of Digital Development, the Ministry of Economy, Rosstandart and other departments. Members of the blogging community are also invited to the discussion.

It is proposed to introduce liability into the Administrative Code for the sale of information products without appropriate accreditation. It will need to be obtained from an organization specially created for this purpose. The Criminal Code, Izvestia writes, will propose introducing punishment for unaccredited bloggers if their services have led to major damage to citizens, organizations or the state.

The working group also plans to discuss the creation of a code “Activities to create information products using remote technologies” in the All-Russian Classifier of Economic Activities (OKVED). Legislators intend to oblige online coaches to report to the authorities about the launch of such projects.

In December 2023, Peter Tolstoy reportedthat State Duma deputies are ready to discuss the creation of a separate code in OKVED for bloggers, since their activities are in no way regulated by law. Now bloggers who register an individual entrepreneur or LLC choose OKVED 59.11 “Production of films and television programs.”

In 2023, criminal cases were brought against several Russian bloggers. Elena Blinovskaya, Valeria and Artem Chekalinakh were accused of tax evasion. The founder of the Like Center business school, Ayaz Shabutdinov, is in custody on charges of fraud on a particularly large scale. According to Kommersant, several more well-known bloggers risk facing criminal prosecution in 2024.

On monitoring the activities of business coaches – in the material “Kommersant” “Ilandings”.

Lusine Balasyan