Russia is set to introduce a new law that will make it a crime punishable by up to 15 years in prison to spread “fake news” about the Kremlin’s military operation in Ukraine.
The proposed legislation, which is supported by Vyacheslav Volodin, the parliamentary speaker, a close ally of President Putin, could be discussed by parliament as early as this week, state television reported.
“These fakes demoralise society and undermine faith in the army and the security services,” Vasily Piskarev, an MP with Putin’s ruling party, said. He added that Russia’s military was “maintaining peace” in Ukraine.
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Piskarev said that “disinformation” was being generated in Ukraine and then “willingly” promoted by opposition news websites and on social media. It was unclear if the law would apply to foreign media outlets.
The legislation would also bar journalists from reporting on Russian military losses that have not been “verified” by the defence ministry. Ukraine has said that about 5,000 Russian troops have died since the start of the invasion on Thursday. If confirmed, the death toll would compare to Russia’s entire official losses during the first Chechen war between 1994 and 1996. Moscow has admitted that some of its soliders have been killed during the invasion but has not given precise numbers. National television channels, which are all controlled by the Kremlin, have not broadcast images of Russian missiles hitting cities in Ukraine and insist that there have been no casualties among civilians. State media has also avoided calling the conflict in Ukraine a war, referring to it instead as a “special operation”. An anti-war demonstrator in Istanbul on Tuesday SEDAT SUNA/EPA Speaking today, Oleksii Reznikov, the Ukrainian defence minister, warned that Russia would soon prepare a mass disinformation campaign to suggest senior military and political figures have surrendered. “To ‘confirm’ this fake information, seemingly signed ‘documents’, as well as fake, edited videos will be distributed,” he said in an online statement. Pro-Kremlin television pundits have meanwhile argued that Russia was forced to act to prevent Nato from using Ukraine as a platform from which to attack Moscow, including with nuclear missiles. Dissenting voices are barred from the airwaves. “The aim of Russia’s special operation in Ukraine is to prevent a global war. Russia’s actions are, in essence, anti-war,” Dmitry Kiselyov, a prominent television presenter, told viewers on Sunday. Olga Skabeeva, another television presenter, said today that the “chaos, panic and mayhem” in Kyiv was being caused by “criminals with weapons”. The Russian defence ministry last week accused Novaya Gazeta, an opposition newspaper in Moscow, of publishing “fake” information about the war. “Everything that does not fit in with Putin’s opinion will be destroyed,” Kirill Martynov, the paper’s deputy editor, told TV Rain, an online channel. Biysultan Khamzaev, another pro-Kremlin MP, said that officials who speak out against the war should be fired immediately. “Such ‘dissenters’ should be banned from working in all government positions. Once and for all, to teach everyone a lesson: if the supreme commander-in-chief has taken a decision — not a step back!” he said, citing a Second World War slogan. Anonymous, the hacker collective, has been urging internet users to flood online reviews of restaurants, services and tourist attractions in Russia with messages condemning the war in Ukraine, as a way to bypass state censorship. It provided an example text in Russia that read: “The food was great! Unfortunately, Putin spoiled our appetites by invading Ukraine. Stand up to your dictator, stop killing innocent people!” The move to censor reporting on the war comes amid fears that Russia is now set for years of international isolation and a return to the closed borders of the Soviet era. Airline bans by both Russia and western countries mean that Russians cannot fly directly to any European country apart from Serbia. There are also fears that the Kremlin may be considering the introduction of exit visas that would require Russians to receive permission from the government to leave the country. There has been a scramble for airline tickets to countries that Russians can enter without visas such as Armenia and Georgia, both former Soviet states. There has also been a surge in online searches on how to obtain citizenship of other neighbouring countries such as Kazakhstan. Dmitry Medvedev, who served one term as president between 2008 and 2012 and is now deputy head of the national security council, insisted that Russia would not suffer as a result of its growing international isolation. “We don’t especially need diplomatic relations,” he said. “It’s time to padlock the embassies and continue contacts looking at each other through binoculars and gun sights.” Medvedev, a massive fan of western rock groups such as Deep Purple, was once seen as a modernising force in Russia. Not everyone in state media is willing to support the war. There has been an exodus of staff from RT, the Kremlin-backed television channel, where up to two dozen people are said to have quit in protest at Putin’s invasion of Ukraine. The channel employs a large number of western journalists. “I no longer wished to be associated with anything to do with this government whatsoever,” a former employee who asked not to be identified said. “Mood is low among many staff now. I believe it is mainly foreigners leaving.” President Zelensky of Ukraine has urged Russians to stand up to Putin. That is easier said than done. Aside from Alexei Navalny, the imprisoned opposition leader, the majority of the Kremlin’s most prominent critics fled to Europe last year amid the Kremlin’s ruthless crackdown on dissent. Ordinary Russians who oppose the war say they have few opportunities to express their dissent. “How are we supposed to protest?” a resident of Moscow, who asked for her name to be withheld, said. “We’ve tried and they arrested us and threw us in prison. My friends in Ukraine said we should take to the streets but they don’t know what it’s like to live here. We are all Putin’s hostages.”