MOSCOW, September 27. /TASS/. The State Duma’s commission for investigating intervention in Russia’s internal affairs will examine the content of such media resources as Meduza, the Russian service of the BBC and Radio Liberty and some others for suspected violations of Russian legislation, the commission’s chairman, head of the State Duma’s committee on security and resistance to corruption, Vasily Piskaryov, told the media.
"I’ve already started telling you that we have many issues on the agenda, for instance, the cases of such media resources as Current Time, Meduza, the Russian service of the BBC, MBKh Media, the Voice of America, Facebook and Google. Radio Liberty was mentioned today as a resource that in our opinion violates our Russian legislation," Piskaryov said, adding that the resources in question were still being studied.
After last week’s meeting the commission’s members said they would draft major amendments to Russian legislation that would let bring to justice and levy multi-million fines on foreign media giants for intervention in Russia’s internal affairs, including elections. It is not ruled out that corresponding amendments would be proposed by the second reading of the bill, adopted a year ago, against the proliferation of fake news in the social networks.
The State Duma’s commission for the investigation of foreign interference in Russia’s internal affairs got down to work in August to probe into activities by a number of foreign diplomats and foreign mass media during unauthorized protest demonstrations in Moscow ahead of the Moscow City Duma elections. In particular, the commission focuses on biased coverage and comments concerning the activity of law enforcement agencies and the publication of routes of unauthorized demonstrations, including those on the Twitter page of the US embassy.