State Duma endorses amendments on fines for fakes about Russian state bodies

The State Duma (the lower house of the Federal Assembly of Russia) adopted amendments to the legislation on liability for false information about the work of Russian state bodies. 

For ‘public dissemination of knowingly false information under the guise of reliable reports, which is aimed at discrediting the performance of the powers by Russian state bodies outside the Russian Federation’ offenders will pay a fine of 700,000 to 1.5 million rubles or serve a prison term of up to 3 years. 

For committing the same offence but ‘with the abuse of power, or by a group of persons, or “by artificially producing prosecutorial evidence,” or “for personal gain,” or “for reasons of political, ideological, racial, ethnic, or religious hatred or enmity,”’ offenders will pay a fine from 3 to 5 million rubles or serve a prison term of 5-10 years.

If any of these offences result in grave consequences, offenders would serve a prison term of 15 years.