On Amendments to the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation and Articles 31 and 151 of the Criminal Procedure Code of the Russian Federation are a group of federal laws promulgated by the Russian government during the Russo-Ukrainian war. These laws establish administrative and criminal punishments for "discrediting" or dissemination of "unreliable information" about the Russian Armed Forces, other Russian state bodies and their operations, and the activity of volunteers aiding the Russian Armed Forces, and for calls to impose sanctions against Russia, Russian organizations and citizens. These laws are an extension of Russian fake news laws and are sometimes referred to as the "fakes" laws.
The laws have been strongly condemned by the political opposition and by human rights groups. The adoption of these laws resulted in the mass exodus of foreign media from Russia and the termination of war reporting by independent Russian media. More than 10,000 people have been prosecuted under these laws, though the laws have been applied inconsistently, with ultra-nationalists and pro-war activists avoiding prosecution despite publishing critical material.
Initially, when enacted on 4 March 2022, the laws applied only to "discrediting" or disseminating "unreliable" information about the Russian Armed Forces. The scope of the law has expanded twice: on 25 March when punishments were added for "discrediting" Russian state bodies or disseminating "unreliable" information about the exercise of their powers outside Russian territory, and on 18 March 2023 when punishments were added for "discrediting" or disseminating "unreliable" information regarding volunteer groups aiding the Russian Armed Forces.
Overview
On 4 March 2022, Russian Federal Laws No.31-FZ and No.32-FZ were adopted by State Duma, approved by the Federation Council and signed by the President of Russia. The former law supplemented the Code of the Russian Federation on Administrative Offenses with articles 20.3.3 and 20.3.4, while the latter supplemented the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation with articles 207.3, 280.3 and 284.2. These articles set punishments for making statements against the Russian Armed Forces or for calling for sanctions. A "discrediting" of the armed forces, including calls that their use was not in the interests of the Russian Federation, carried large fines for natural and juridicial persons (article 20.3.3) and up to five years imprisonment (article 280.3). The dissemination of "unreliable information" about the armed forces and its operation could be punished with up to fifteen years imprisonment (article 207.3). Calls to impose sanctions against Russia, Russian citizens or Russian legal entities carried a large fine (article 20.3.4) and up to 3 years imprisonment (article 284.2).
The laws are enforced according to the so-called Dadin scheme: a first offense is punished administratively by fines with subsequent offenses punished under the criminal code. Dissemination of "unreliable" information about the armed forces and their operations is an exception, as it is only punishable under the criminal code. The prevailing approach in Russian law-enforcement considers any violations committed through Internet publications as continuing violations; this allows authorities to persecute people for material published before the laws came into effect. The statute of limitations is taken from the time when violating material is removed from the Internet.
On 25 March 2022, federal laws No.62-FZ and No.63-FZ amended articles 20.3.3 and 207.3 to extend the punishments for "discrediting" or disseminating "unreliable" information regarding the extraterritorial exercise of powers by other Russian state bodies. This includes National Guard, Federal Security Service (FSB), Ministry of Emergency Situations, General Prosecutor's Office, Investigative Committee, and Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
On 18 March 2023, federal laws No.57-FZ and No.58-FZ made additional amendments to the administrative and criminal codes, extending the punishments for "discrediting" or disseminating "unreliable" information to the activities of volunteers, their formations and organizations aimed at assisting the tasks of the armed forces. This included all participants of military operations for Russia, including military volunteers and mercenaries such as Wagner Group, and is remarkable as mercenarism is fully prohibited and criminally punishable under article 359 of Russia's criminal code. These amendments also increased the maximum prison terms: with up to five years imprisonment for calling for sanctions and up to seven years imprisonment for "discrediting" or disseminating "unreliable" information about the armed forces.
Effect on media Domestic media Many Russian media outlets were forced to stop covering the Russian invasion of Ukraine because of this legislation, including Colta.ru, Snob online magazine, Znak.com, The Bell, and Novaya Gazeta. Independent television channel Dozhd (TV Rain) suspended operations due to the laws. Radio Liberty announced that it would stop working in Russia due to the new law on "fakes", but would continue to cover events in Ukraine while abroad. Certain foreign media outlets were also blocked within Russia.
According to news website Agentstvo, over 150 journalists had left Russia by 7 March 2022, within three days of the laws coming into effect.
On 7 April 2022, to avoid prosecutions under the law, journalists from Novaya Gazeta announced the launch of Novaya Gazeta Europe, with its editor-in-chief, Kirill Martynov, stating that Novaya Gazeta Europe would be independent from Novaya Gazeta "both legally and in practice", with its newsroom consisting of staffers who had left Russia.
Leading speakers of several YouTube video blogs with large audiences have also become defendants in the "law on fakes". In particular, criminal cases were initiated against Maxim Katz of channel "Maxim Katz" and Anastasia Bryukhanova of channel "Objective". The reason was the allegations of the involvement of the Russian military in the deaths of the civilian population in Bucha, Ukraine.
As recently as 30 April 2022, Animators Against War broadcast on YouTube episodes of their campaign against the invasion of Ukraine, although it attempts to fly under the radar. With only a Ukrainian flag and the face of Putin represented pictorially in a two-minute short feature, the impact of these censorship laws is evident.
Foreign Russian-language media
Israel-based Russian animator Oleg Kuvaev criticised the Russian invasion of Ukraine in episode 160 of his webseries Masyanya. In the episode, Putin is compared to Adolf Hitler and is given a katana, implying that he undertakes seppuku. Roskomnadzor banned the cartoon. Two days after the regulator's ruling, a denial-of-service attack was launched against Kuvaev's websites, though the webseries remained on YouTube.
The following episode explained to children that what they witnessed was not to be spoken aloud for fear of drawing the Russian authorities' anger and lust for administrative violence. The subsequent episode depicted a Chinese attack on Russia with bombs falling on Novgorod, Moscow and Tver. The Chinese attack is motivated by a desire to denazify Russia and recuperate Chinese lands, and observes that Russian is not a real language but rather a derivative of the Ukrainian language. It concludes with a parenthetical observation that "this war" is the shame of Russia and that Russia will as a result suffer damnation for centuries.
Application of law
According to human rights NGO OVD-Info, over 400 people were detained or fined by April 2022 under the laws prohibiting fake information about the military. By May 2022 more than 2,000 people were detained or fined under the laws. As of December 2022, more than 4,000 people had been prosecuted for criticizing the war in Ukraine. Notable individual applications of the law include:
On 16 March 2022, Russian socialite and food blogger Veronika Belotserkovskaya became the first individual charged under the "fakes law".
On 22 March 2022, Russian television journalist Alexander Nevzorov was charged under the law after he published information that Russian forces shelled a maternity hospital in Mariupol. Nevzorov said that Vladimir Putin's "regime is not going to spare anyone, and that any attempts to comprehend the criminal war [in Ukraine] will end in prison."
On 25 March 2022, Russian journalist Izabella Yevloyeva was charged under the "fakes law" after sharing a post on social media that described the "Z" symbol as being "synonymous with aggression, death, pain and shameless manipulation".
On 13 April 2022, Russian journalist , editor-in-chief of the online magazine Novy Fokus, was detained by police over its reporting on the war in Ukraine. He faces up to 10 years in prison. Afanasyev was twice awarded the Andrei Sakharov Prize "For Journalism as a Deed." He was sentenced to 5.5 years in prison in September 2023.
Sergei Klokov, a Moscow policeman who is originally from Bucha in Ukraine, was arrested after telling co-workers what he had heard from Ukrainian friends and family about the Russian invasion. One of Klokov's colleagues said in the interrogations: "He said that we had no right to attack and go to war with them, and although I tried to explain to him that there is no war, he did not listen to me. I can’t explain why he became so radical."
Some priests in the Russian Orthodox Church have publicly opposed the invasion, with some facing arrest under laws criminalising "discrediting" the armed forces.
On 22 April 2022, Russian opposition politician Vladimir Kara-Murza was charged by a Russian court for spreading of false information about the Russian military, due to his 15 March speech to the Arizona House of Representatives, in which he denounced the war in Ukraine.
Russian journalist , the former publisher of Meduza news website, was charged by a Russian court for spreading fake news about the massacre in the Ukrainian city of Bucha.
On 18 May 2022, an administrative offense case of discrediting the Russian Armed Forces was filed against musician Yuri Shevchuk, the leader of the rock band DDT, after he said at a concert in Ufa: "The motherland, my friends, is not the president's ass that has to be slobbered and kissed all the time. The motherland is an impoverished old woman at the train station selling potatoes." The case was sent to the court of Sovietsky district of Ufa and subsequently referred to the court of Dzerzhinsky district of Saint Petersburg. This court returned the case due to the lack of description of the violation committed in the police report and on a second occasion due to the lack of Shevchuk's signature and information that he was apprised of his rights. On 16 August, the court of Sovietsky district found Shevchuk guilty of discrediting the armed forces, considering it unimportant that he didn't refer to the Russian Armed Forces at the concert. Shevchuk appealed the judgement in August 2022. In December 2022, his appeal was dismissed.
The first person convicted under criminal code article 207.3 is Pyotr Mylnikov, who posted documents in a Viber chat about mobile crematoriums owned by the Ministry of Defence. On 30 May 2022, Olovyanninsky District court found him guilty of dissemination of unreliable information about Russian Armed Forces and its operations and sentenced him to a fine of 1,000,000 rubles.