Press Release, 11.01.2022

Photo: Trenches along the road dug by the Russian military in the area of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant. Ukraine, 7 April, 2022 // REUTERS / Gleb Garanich

The faction of the Yabloko party in the Legislative Assembly of Karelia submitted for consideration of the Karelian parliament a draft federal law establishing criminal liability for public calls for the use of nuclear weapons, as well as for propaganda of their use. Earlier, deputies from Yabloko in the St.Petersburg  Legislative Assembly submitted a similar bill for consideration by the St.Petersburg parliament.

The authors of the bill – deputies Emilia Slabunova and Inna Boluchevskaya – propose to supplement the Criminal Code with a new Article 354.2, which will provide for punishment of 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.

Yabloko deputies mark in the explanatory note to the bill, that propaganda for the use of nuclear weapons is not only prohibited by a number of international regulatory documents, but is also destructive from the point of view of universal human values. The increasing calls to use nuclear weapons create dangerous socio-psychological conditions for getting used to the very idea that this can solve some political or other problems, rather than cause irreparable harm to humanity and the planet.

“We are confident that civilisation has developed humane ways to resolve any interstate conflicts over the 5,000 years of its existence,” Emilia Sabunova, an MP of the Legislative Assembly of Karelia and a member of the Yabloko Federal Political Committee, commented on the draft 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.