MOSCOW. March 2 (Interfax) - The State Duma voted for amendments to the Russian Criminal Code and Code of Administrative Offenses on Thursday to penalize discrediting units and entities assisting the Russian Armed Forces.
According to the amendments, criminal liability will apply for public actions aimed at discrediting "assistance to volunteer formations, organizations or persons in achieving tasks given to the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation committed by a person after he was subjected to administrative liability for a similar action within one year."
It will be punishable by a fine in an amount of 100,000 rubles to 300,000 rubles or up to five years in prison.
If such actions led to death by negligence or inflicted damage on citizens' health, property, caused mass violations of order or public security or hindered the functioning or halt of operation of infrastructure facilities, transport or social infrastructure, credit organizations, energy facilities, industry or communication facilities, the proposed punishment is a fine in an amount of 300,000 rubles to one million rubles or up to seven years in prison.
It also approved amendments to the article of the Russian Criminal Code penalizing public dissemination of knowingly false information about "assistance of volunteer units, entities or parties in the accomplishment of missions by the Russian Armed Forces."
Such offenses will be punished with a fine of 700,000 rubles to 1.5 million rubles or up to five years of imprisonment.
Should the offense have grave consequences, perpetrators will be facing ten to 15 years of incarceration.
The amendments were submitted by a group of authors including State Duma Speaker Vyacheslav Volodin, State Duma Deputy Speaker Irina Yarovaya, State Duma Defense Committee head Andrei Kartapolov, and State Duma Security Committee head Vasily Piskaryov.
The State Duma also passed amendments to the Code of Administrative Offenses in the second reading of the bill.
According to the proposed changes, public actions aimed at discrediting "assistance to volunteer formations, organizations or persons in the achievement of tasks given to the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation, if these actions do not contain indications of a criminal offense," lead to an administrative fine in an amount of 30,000 rubles to 50,000 rubles for citizens, 100,000 rubles to 200,000 rubles for officials, and 300,000 rubles to 500,000 rubles for legal entities.
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