Press Release, 17.02.2023

Photo: Boris Vishnevsky and Alexander Shishlov in the Legislative Assembly of St. Petersburg / Photo by the Yabloko Press Service

The Committee on Legislation of the St. Petersburg Legislative Assembly will not put the initiative of the Yabloko faction on repealing the laws on “fakes” and “discrediting the RF Armed Forces” in the agenda of the Assembly. Such a decision was adopted by the Committee on Legislation of the St.Petersburg parliament at its meeting on Friday, 17 February. The members of the Committee said that the Yabloko’s bill was not developed enough and suggested that a working group be created for this.

The Yabloko faction submitted a draft appeal to the Speaker of the State Duma Vyacheslav Volodin back in November 2022. Yabloko deputies demanded the abolition of articles on “discrediting the army” (Article 20.3.3 of the Code of Administrative Offenses and Article 280.3 of the Criminal Code) and dissemination of “knowingly false information about the armed forces” (Article 207.3 of the Criminal Code), which may violate the constitutional right of citizens to freedom of speech.

These norms led to the closure of many media outlets in Russia, as well as to the initiation, often for absurd reasons, of 187 criminal cases and more than 6,000 administrative cases against citizens. At the same time, the criminal article for spreading “fake news” has never been applied to the sources of official information refuted later.

The Committee examined Yabloko’s initiative on Friday, 10 February 10, when it was recommended not to accept it. At the same time, the Chairman of the Committee, MP Vsevolod Belikov, noted that, in his personal opinion, the penalties under the aforementioned repressive articles were excessive and one could “get by with just whipping”.

“I think that the Committee categorically does not want to discuss this problem publicly at the meeting. They are frightened that repressive laws will be criticised. But we will put the issue on the agenda from our faction,” said Boris Vishnevsky, Deputy Chair of the Yabloko faction.

In March 2022, the Secretariat of the Board of the Union of Journalists of St. Petersburg and the Leningrad Region made a statement condemning the actions of Roskomnadzor, the Russian media supervision agency, as its actions during the Russian “special military operation” led to blocking of more than two dozen media outlets or their closure (because of the threat of being blocked).

Since the beginning of the so-called “special operation”, three criminal cases have been initiated and at least 40 administrative protocols have been drawn up under the new censorship articles of the Criminal Code and the Code of Administrative Offenses. Alexander Shishlov, head of the Yabloko faction in the Legislative Assembly of St. Petersburg, was fined 30,000 roubles under Article 20.3.3 of the Code of Administrative Offenses (“discrediting the armed forces”), the politician filed a cassation appeal (https://eng.yabloko.ru/30405-2/ ) against the court decision. A report on an administrative offense of “discrediting the army” was also drawn up against Boris Vishnevsky, another Yabloko MP of the St. Petersburg parliament, later the report was returned (https://eng.yabloko.ru/30116-2/ ) from the court to the police for correction of the errors.