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Western-funded media, NGOs directly sponsor sabotage in Russia — lawmaker

On Wednesday, the State Duma passed a bill in the first reading introducing criminal penalties up to life imprisonment for promoting sabotage

MOSCOW, December 14. /TASS/. Western-funded media and nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) have moved from interfering in Russia's internal affairs to directly organizing sabotage on the country's territory, Vasily Piskarev, head of the State Duma Commission on Investigation into Foreign Interference in Russia's Internal Affairs, said on Wednesday.

"The dangerous trend is that Western-financed media and NGOs have moved from acts of interference in our internal affairs and fake propaganda to direct organization of sabotage and publication of instructions for committing it," the lawmaker said during a State Duma session.

"The commission has at its disposal documents, photo and video materials on how the West hatches and implements plans not only to destabilize our domestic political agenda, but also to undermine the economic security and defense capacity of our country, including through sabotage at enterprises, institutions, facilities and infrastructure facilities," he added.

On Wednesday, the State Duma passed a bill in the first reading introducing criminal penalties up to life imprisonment for promoting sabotage. The document proposes to supplement the Russian Criminal Code with Article 281.1 (Promotion of subversion activities), Article 281.2 (Passing training in order to carry out subversive activities) and Article 281.3 (Organization of subversive groups and participation in them). Criminal liability will follow for aiding, abetting, inciting and inducing to commit acts of sabotage and their financing. In addition, training to commit acts of sabotage and the creation of criminal communities for the purpose of committing sabotage will become a criminal offense.

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