The ruling United Russia party proposed Friday to criminalize libel, prompting the opposition to decry it for an attempt to silence critics of the Kremlin.
A bill criminalizing libel was introduced on Friday in the State Duma by a group of lawmakers headed by United Russia's Pavel Krasheninnikov.
The bill envisages jail terms of up to five years and fines of up to 100,000 rubles ($3,000) for misinformation damaging a person's reputation. No date for a hearing was set on Friday.
The bill rolls back ex-President Dmitry Medvedev’s legislative reform, which saw libel decriminalized last December.
Libel in Russia is currently an administrative offense punishable with fines of up to 5,000 rubles ($150) for individuals and 500,000 rubles for legal entities.
Medvedev, who is now prime minister and head of the United Russia party, did not comment on the proposal, while Krasheninnikov denied on Friday the reform’s rollback was insubordination.
Krasheninnikov also dismissed claims by opposition supporters that the bill is aimed to suppress critics of the authorities. Officials are often accused of corruption and abuse of power in blogs and media, but not in courts, and the opposition campaigned against United Russia in the Duma vote in December using the slogan “the party of crooks and thieves,” invented by whistleblower Alexei Navalny.
“If liability for libel is tightened, that would allow pressuring the opposition, including Navalny,” the whistleblower’s lawyer, Vadim Kobzev, told Forbes.ru.
But the opposition would also be able to use the law to fight back allegations against it, Kobzev said. He did not elaborate, but pro-Kremlin media accused protesters attending anti-government rallies ongoing in Moscow since December of being in the pay of the U.S. State Department, though the accusations were never proven.
