A Russian government bill submitted on July 15 to the State Duma proposed broader criteria as to under which condition Russian citizens may be added to the country's list of terrorists and extremists.
In a effort to continue to crackdown on political dissent on Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, the proposed legislation would allow the Russian Federal Service for Financial Monitoring (Rosfinmonitoring) to add individuals convicted of spreading "false information" about Russia's military to the list - provided it is motivated by broadly defined "hatred."
If enacted, the new measures would also include broad provisions for "hooliganism" motivated by political hatred to the criteria deemed as terrorist or extremist, in addition to undefined "other crimes."
According to the U.S.-based think tank Institute for the Study of War (ISW), the proposed bill would provide "significant leeway to designate people who have allegedly committed a wide array of crimes as terrorists and extremists."
The legislation, submitted to the country's lower chamber, notes that an individual must have committed the offense under the pretenses of "political, ideological, racial, national, or religious hatred."
Russia has been regularly accused of arbitrarily jailing political opponents and dissidents accused of politically-motivated hatred.
According to the ISW, in seeking to control dissent, the Kremlin is "looking to change the mechanisms for adding people to the terrorist and extremist list in order to incentivize Russians to engage in self-censorship by tightening the Kremlin's control over criticism in Russian society, especially about Russia’s war in Ukraine."
The proposed legislation effectively increases the number of article under Russia's criminal code that an individual may be designated as a terrorist of extremist from 26 to 34 articles, Russian independent media outlet Meduza reported.
Nate Ostiller
(Updated: )
