MOSCOW, February 28. /TASS/. Head of the State Duma Security and Anti-Corruption Committee Vasily Piskarev announced on Monday that the lower house of parliament was planning to introduce liability for misinformation on the Russian troops during their special military operation in Ukraine.
Liability for spreading deliberately false information is currently prescribed in the Code of Administrative Offences and the Criminal Code of Russia, the senior lawmaker said.
"Two years ago, we additionally introduced liability for spreading deliberately false publicly significant information about the pandemic. I believe that these same articles can be supplemented with a provision on liability for distorting the goal, role and tasks of the Russian Armed Forces and other formations during special military and other operations," the senior lawmaker’s press office quoted him as saying.
Given that the initiative is backed by lawmakers, it will be shortly submitted to the State Duma for examination, Piskarev said. "We are planning to discuss the issue jointly with our colleagues from the [State Duma] Defense Committee and lawmakers from all the factions. It is obvious that legislative decisions are needed," the senior MP said.
"We are registering a large amount, simply a barrage of fake news on the course of the special military operation, casualties and so on. It is clear that most of it is generated in Ukraine. Nevertheless, it is willingly spread by some Russian media outlets and also by users in social networks. The Security and Anti-Corruption Committee is now analyzing this information," Piskarev said, stressing that fake news was demoralizing society and undermining trust for the Russian army, defense, security and law-enforcement structures.
"And the main thing is that this is a huge blow on the combatants’ near and dear ones," he added.
Russia’s Defense Ministry earlier urged not to spread untrue information on the special military operation in Ukraine. As the Russian troops were successfully fulfilling their tasks, the number of "hysterical fake news stories and outright misinformation spread by the ‘Ukrainian armchair troops’ in social networks" was mounting, it added.
Russian President Vladimir Putin said in a televised address on the morning of February 24 that in response to a request by the heads of the Donbass republics he had made a decision to carry out a special military operation in order to protect people "who have been suffering from abuse and genocide by the Kiev regime for eight years." The Russian leader stressed that Moscow had no plans of occupying Ukrainian territories and the operation was aimed at demilitarizing and denazifying the country.
When clarifying the unfolding developments, the Russian Defense Ministry reassured that Russian troops are not targeting Ukrainian cities, but are limited to surgically striking and incapacitating Ukrainian military infrastructure. There are no threats whatsoever to the civilian population.