Russia Criminalizes Sanctions Calls, ‘Fake News’ on Military

(Bloomberg) -- Russia's parliament passed harsh laws that would impose prison terms for people charged with spreading “fake news” about the military or calling for sanctions against the country.

People convicted of spreading what the authorities deem to be false information concerning the military's activities face fines and imprisonment for as long as 15 years under the legislation, which now goes to President Vladimir Putin to sign.

The law will allow “those who lied and made statements discrediting our Armed Forces to be punished, and very severely,” as soon as it comes into force, Speaker Vyacheslav Volodin said Friday, when lawmakers in the State Duma unanimously endorsed the measure.

Russia is moving to tighten control of information as its invasion of Ukraine continues for a second week amid international condemnation and the imposition of sweeping sanctions. After initially saying its forces had incurred no casualties in what Russia calls a “special military operation,” the Defense Ministry in Moscow announced Wednesday that 498 of it servicemen had died and nearly 1,600 had been injured in the fighting. Ukraine has claimed Russian casualties are in the thousands.

The BBC is suspending the work of all its news journalists and their support staff in Russia while the broadcaster assesses the implications of the legislation “which appears to criminalise the process of independent journalism,” Director-General Tim Davie said in a website statement Friday. “We are not prepared to expose them to the risk of criminal prosecution simply for doing their jobs,” he said.

While there've been only scattered protests so far in Russia against the war, the government has throttled access to social media and ordered Russian news outlets only to publish information from official sources.

Two liberal broadcasters, Ekho Moskvy and TV Rain, went off air Thursday under pressure from prosecutors who'd demanded that access be restricted because of their coverage of the war. The websites of the BBC, Deutsche Welle and Meduza, an independent news group, weren't accessible Friday.

The new legislation threatens fines and imprisonment for seeking to “discredit” Russia's military, including calls to prevent its deployment in “defense of the interests of the Russian Federation.” People making appeals to join protests also face fines.

Lawmakers also approved an addition to the Criminal Code outlawing calls for sanctions against Russia, its citizens or legal entities with a fine of as much as 500,000 rubles ($4,200) or up to three years in prison.

With assistance from Bloomberg