Press Release, 18.01.2023

Photo: Gas masks at a school in Pripyat, an abandoned city in the Chernobyl zone / Photo by Alexander Vedernikov, Kommersant

Yabloko MP Artur Gaiduk submitted to the Pskov Regional Assembly a draft federal law on criminal liability for public calls for the use of nuclear weapons and propaganda for their use. Earlier, similar bills were introduced by deputies from Yabloko in the legislative assemblies of St. Petersburg and Karelia. Members of the Committee on Legislation of the Legislative Assembly of St. Petersburg considered the initiative dangerous and rejected it.

The draft law proposes to supplement the Criminal Code with Article 354.2, which will provide for punishment for citizens, mass media and persons holding public office for calling for the use of nuclear weapons or for promoting their use. The bill envisages a fine from 100,000 to 300,000 roubles, correctional labor or imprisonment for up to three years for citizens; and imprisonment for up to five years or a fine of up to 1 million roubles for mass media and civil servants.

The explanatory note to the bill runs:

“The UN General Assembly, in the Declaration on the Prevention of Nuclear Catastrophe of 9 December, 1981, declared that any doctrines that allow the first use of nuclear weapons and any actions pushing the world to catastrophe are incompatible with the laws of human morality and the high ideals of the United Nations.

The UN General Assembly states in the Declaration on the Prohibition of the Use of Nuclear and Thermonuclear Weapons of 24 November, 1961, that the use of nuclear weapons is a war directed not only against this or that adversary or against these or those adversaries, but also against humanity as a whole, as the peoples of the world who do not participate in such a war will be subjected to all the disasters caused by the use of such weapons.

In the Agreement on Joint Measures Against Nuclear Weapons, ratified by the Decree of the Supreme Council of the RSFSR of 25 December, 1991, the Republic of Belarus, the Republic of Kazakhstan, the Russian Federation (RSFSR) and Ukraine reaffirmed the obligation not to be the first to use nuclear weapons.

Lev Shlosberg, the leader of the Pskov branch of Yabloko, commented on the initiative as follows:

“Russian propagandists have been openly and aggressively discussing and supporting the use of nuclear weapons by Russia for several years, the first use of nuclear weapons inclusive. Such propaganda intensified in 2022 and go on to escalate. Wild ideas not only about the permissibility, but also about the effectiveness of a nuclear strike are being spread. Dozens of millions of people listen to this dangerous nonsense every day. The Russian Criminal Code contains Article 354 “Public calls to unleash an aggressive war”, which, in our opinion, needs to be substantially supplemented in terms of calls for the use of nuclear weapons and propaganda for their use. This is a matter of the mental and moral health of society. The plague of propaganda must be, if not stopped, then limited by the norm of the federal criminal law.”

Earlier, the Federal Political Committee of the Yabloko party made a statement on the need to stop state propaganda of hatred and aggression in Russia, and introduce a legislative ban on nuclear war propaganda.