MOSCOW, Dec 28: Russian President Vladimir Putin has signed legislation which partially decriminalizes the Article 282 of the Criminal Code, which covers extremism, specifically, reposts of controversial social media publications, according to a document published on the official legal information web portal. Under the regulations, criminal proceedings will not be launched against people who violated the law for the first time if their offense “did not represent a serious threat to the basic principles of the constitutional order and national security.” Moreover, a person will be prosecuted only if he or she had violated the law more than once in the course of 12 months. Official data show that the major part of extremism criminal cases in Russia are launched over online publications. Particularly, last year, 75 percent of the cases launched under the Article 282 concerned online activities. The issue of criminal prosecution of people sharing materials online for extremism has attracted the attention of the authorities after several high-profile trials for reposts were held in the Russian regions earlier this year.
The bills partially decriminalizing the legislation on extremism were subsequently introduced into the Russian parliament by Putin.
(AGENCIES)
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