MOSCOW. June 13 (Interfax) - The State Duma on Tuesday passed in the first reading a bill on blocking information resources for raising funds to finance an enemy during an armed conflict.
The bill imposes restrictions on online resources proposing that an enemy receive financing during an armed conflict, military operations, counterterrorist operations or other actions involving weapons and military hardware, in which Russia takes part, as well as information about possible methods of such financing.
The procedure provides that in the event of obtaining relevant information, the prosecutor general will turn to the Russian telecoms watchdog Roskomnadzor to block it.
The criminal liability for such financing is already provided for in the high treason article of the Russian Criminal Code, Vasily Piskaryov, co-author of the bill and chairman of the State Duma Security and Anti-Corruption Committee, said. "It contains a ban on providing financial, material and technical assistance to a foreign country directed against the security of our country and provides for liability up to life imprisonment," Piskaryov told reporters.
The bill's explanatory note says that numerous facts regarding the participation of foreign media platforms and entities in the dissemination of proposals to fund the Ukrainian Armed Forces and various methods of such funding have been uncovered during the special military operation.