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Russia’s lower house moves to soften punishment for extremist speech

The initiative was submitted to the State Duma by Russian President Vladimir Putin in early October

MOSCOW, November 15. /TASS/. Russia’s State Duma, the lower house of parliament, on Thursday passed in the first reading the bills on partially decriminalizing Article 282 of the Criminal Code, which establishes criminal responsibility for extremist speech.

The initiative was submitted to the State Duma by Russian President Vladimir Putin in early October.

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The amendments concern softening punishment first of all for Internet users. The crimes committed for first time related to stirring up hatred or humiliating people for their sex, race, nationality, language, origin, religion and belonging to a social group in public, including through mass media and the Internet, will be removed from the Criminal Code and be considered as administrative offences.

Under the proposal, fines of between 10,000 rubles ($150) and 20,000 rubles ($300) or compulsory works of up to 100 hours or an administrative arrest for up to 15 days will be introduced for individuals. Legal entities will face fines of between 250,000 rubles ($3,750) and 500,000 rubles ($7,500).

Felony penalties will take effect if an administrative offence is committed twice during the year. These crimes will be punishable by prison terms of between two and five years, like under the previous Criminal Code provisions.

If passed, the bills will apply to the earlier opened criminal cases and the delivered verdicts, Chairman of the State Duma’s Statehood and Constitutional Legislation Committee, Pavel Krasheninnikov, told TASS. This means that "the so-called criminal cases for ‘likes and reposts’ should be closed and the sentences which came into force should be reviewed," he explained.

The MP voiced hope that the bills would be adopted by the end of 2018.

Chairman of Russia’s State Duma Committee on Information Policy, Information Technology and Communications Leonid Levin hopes that the bills will put an end to the controversial practice of making likes and reposts a crime.

"The key feature of the initiative submitted by the president is to introduce a barrier for bringing criminal action against individuals for committing steps for the first time, which are aimed at stirring hatred, feud or humiliation. So, the application of Article 282 of the Criminal Code, which was earlier justifiably considered as excessively repressive, will be significantly softened," he said.

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