Press Release, 15.03.2022

Photo by the Yabloko Press Service

Deputies of the Legislative Assembly of St. Petersburg from Yabloko Alexander Shishlov and Boris Vishnevsky sent an appeal to the Chairman of the State Duma Vyacheslav Volodin and deputies of the State Duma demanding to immediately cancel the amendments to the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation and the Code of Administrative Offenses of the Russian Federation, adopted on 4 March, imposing penalties for spreading “fakes” about the actions of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation, “publicly discrediting the use of the Armed Forces” and “public calls to obstruct the use of the Armed Forces”.

These laws actually introduce military censorship in the mass media, prohibiting the dissemination of any information about what is happening during the “special operation”, except from “official sources”, and violate the rights of citizens, prohibiting the free expression of their opinion about what is happening, negative opinion inclusive.

In their appeal, the deputies note that on the basis of new laws fines and arrests are already being imposed in St. Petersburg for anti-war slogans (including “No to War!”, whereas police protocols literally state the following: “Held a poster “No to War”, thereby expressing his opinion and shaping the opinion of those around him about the participation of the Russian Armed Forces in the war, rather than in a special operation”). This looks monstrous for our country, where several generations grew up under the slogan “If only there were no war”.