Russia dictator Vladimir Putin promulgated on Thursday (31) a law that provides fines for users researching “extremist material” on the Internet and was criticized even by personalities linked to Kremlin.
Putin signed the document after he was approved by the two chambers of Parliament, the Duma and the Senate, with the support of the Kremlin party, the United Russia.
Punishment – fines between 3,000 (R $ 207) and 5,000 rubles (R $ 345) – can be applied by search with or without the help of VPN services.
In fact, Putin today signed another law that considers aggravating a crime with the use of a VPN, although authorities insist that in no case their use will be prohibited.
Regarding the first law, the deputies who approved it stated that “there is nothing to fear if the person does not dedicate himself to deliberately researching extremist materials.”
The Ministry of Justice estimates about 5.5 thousand materials considered extremist, the last of which included in the list on Wednesday is the memories of the late opposing leader Alexei Navalny.
Putin met last week with Digital Development Minister Maksut Shadaev to understand the scope of the document.
“In practice, security forces will demonstrate that there was intention and that the user knew beforehand that these extremist materials were included in the record,” the minister explained.
Opponents compared the law to George Orwell’s novel “1984”, as they consider it to pursue ordinary citizens, to whom he exhorts not to research and not think ”.
“People are against. In the current wording, the law is not necessary,” said Vladislav Davankov, presidential candidate for the New People’s Party.
Boris Nadezhdin, a presidential candidate in 2024, and the director of the RT (Putin-dominated state broadcaster), Margarita Simonian, joined criticism.
“Hey? Another instrument of repression. One more drop in the glass of the patience of the people,” Nadezhdin said today on Telegram.
Even the most famous whistleblower in the country, Yekaterina Mizulina, a head of the secure internet league that has been pointed out as a lover of Putin, criticized the document, because, according to her, can turn into offenders “millions of Russians simply by researching and seeing unwanted information.”
“To infringe the law, just click on the wrong link and see something wrong. However, the criteria on what ‘it’s good or bad’ are only within God’s reach,” he said.
Meanwhile, other deputies have defended the introduction of changes in the law so that fines are not applied to journalists and other professionals who consult materials considered “extremists” for work reasons.
