Russian lawmakers move to start fining ordinary citizens for ‘discrediting traditional values’
A committee of Russia’s State Duma has recommended passing the first reading of a bill that would introduce fines for spreading material that “discredits traditional Russian spiritual and moral values” and for refusing to remove it, Russian news agency Interfax reported on Monday.
The bill sets administrative penalties for violating existing bans on distributing content that “discredits traditional spiritual and moral values or promotes their rejection.” Fines would apply to private individuals as well as officials and legal entities. According to Sergey Boyarsky, one of the bill’s authors and head of the Duma’s information policy committee, the individuals targeted would be owners of social media accounts and audiovisual services.
If the bill becomes law, first-time offenders would face fines of up to 5,000 rubles (€54) for individuals, up to 100,000 rubles (€1,100) for officials and up to 700,000 rubles (€7,500) for legal entities. Repeat violations would raise the maximum fines to 150,000 rubles (€1,600) for individuals, 400,000 rubles (€4,300) for officials and 3 million rubles (€32,300) for legal entities. Services that remove the content within 24 hours would escape liability.
Failing to comply with a demand from Roskomnadzor, the country’s media and internet regulator, to remove such content would carry steeper penalties: up to 20,000 rubles (€215) for individuals, up to 200,000 rubles (€2,150) for officials and up to 1 million rubles (€10,800) for legal entities. For repeat violations, the fines would rise to as much as 300,000 rubles (€3,200), 800,000 rubles (€8,600) and 5 million rubles (€53,800), respectively.
Roskomnadzor and the Culture Ministry would decide which materials count as discrediting traditional spiritual and moral values. Boyarsky stressed that liability would fall on those who “deliberately discredit traditional values” as defined in a decree signed by Vladimir Putin.
Putin issued a decree on 9 November 2022 defining “traditional values” as follows:
“Moral guideposts that shape the worldview of Russian citizens, are passed down from generation to generation, underlie Russia’s national civic identity and unified cultural space, strengthen civic unity, and have found their unique, distinctive expression in the spiritual, historical and cultural development of Russia’s multinational people.”
The decree then lists these values:
“Life, dignity, human rights and freedoms, patriotism, civic duty, service to the Fatherland and responsibility for its fate, high moral ideals, a strong family, creative labour, the priority of the spiritual over the material, humanism, mercy, justice, collectivism, mutual aid and mutual respect, historical memory and continuity between generations, the unity of the peoples of Russia.”