The State Duma on Wednesday unanimously approved in the first reading a package of bills aimed at combating saboteurs. Amendments to the Criminal (CC) and Criminal Procedure (CPC) codes increase liability for sabotage and related crimes up to life imprisonment. The second project provides for blocking the accounts of persons involved in the financing of subversive activities. And the third document supplements the list of prohibited and subject to blocking information with information regarding the methods of manufacturing weapons and ammunition.
All three bills December 8 contributed to the Duma a large group of deputies headed by the speaker of the chamber Vyacheslav Volodin. First of all, they proposed to supplement the Criminal Code with new Art. 281.1 (“Promotion of sabotage activities”), 281.2 (“Training in order to carry out sabotage activities”) and 281.3 (“Organization of a sabotage community and participation in it”). Criminal liability for them will come for financing, inducing, recruiting or otherwise involving a person in committing sabotage; undergoing training in order to carry out sabotage; organization of a sabotage community and participation in it. Propaganda of subversive activities will be an aggravating circumstance.
The maximum punishment for participation in a sabotage community will be ten years in prison, for inciting sabotage – 20 years, for creating a sabotage community – life imprisonment.
According to the current legislation (Article 281 of the Criminal Code), sabotage is punishable by imprisonment for a term of 10 to 15 years, committed by an organized group – from 12 to 20 years, and if these actions resulted in the deliberate infliction of death to a person, saboteurs face 15 to 20 years of imprisonment freedom or life imprisonment. “The current measures of responsibility for sabotage crimes do not correlate with the degree of public danger and organization of such crimes, the commission of which is aimed at causing significant economic damage, threats to the life and safety of citizens, and the safety of important objects,” the explanatory note to the bill says.
Amendments to the law “On counteracting the legalization (laundering) of proceeds from crime and the financing of terrorism” provide for the possibility of blocking the bank accounts of saboteurs, by analogy with terrorists and extremists. Finally, amendments to the laws “On Information, Information Technologies and Information Protection” and “On the Mass Media” expand the list of prohibited information to be blocked on the Internet. It will include “information on the ways, methods of home-made manufacture of explosives and explosive devices, the illegal manufacture or alteration of weapons, the main parts of firearms, as well as the illegal manufacture of ammunition for firearms.”
Vice Speaker Irina Yarovaya (United Russia), justifying the need to adopt the bills, spoke regarding the December 13 meeting of the National Anti-Terrorism Committee, where the head of the FSB, Alexander Bortnikov, said that in 2022, 400 people “arrived from Ukraine” were detained at the Russian border for the purpose of committing crimes.”
“Besides, the activities of 50 illegal weapons workshops and 74 criminal groups that were engaged in the illegal manufacture of ammunition were stopped,” Mrs. Yarovaya informed.
She also did not forget to refer to the experience of “unfriendly countries” in combating such crimes: “In the United States and Great Britain, sabotage is punishable by punishment up to life imprisonment.” At the same time, the Vice Speaker noted that combat instructors from NATO countries are working in Ukraine. “We are in fact publicly declaring that anyone who arrives on the territory of Russia with the aim of committing sabotage will bear the strictest responsibility, up to life imprisonment,” Irina Yarovaya emphasized.
No one argued with the need to adopt bills – on the contrary, the deputies proposed to further increase the punishment for saboteurs. So, Mikhail Delyagin from A Just Russia – For the Truth (SRZP) addressed Irina Pankina (ER), who made a co-report from the Committee on State Building and Legislation: “The heaviest responsibility, according to Russian laws, is far from life imprisonment. Why do we still touchingly care regarding saboteurs, as we used to care regarding terrorists, freeing them from the death penalty? This public is sure that there will be some next Medvedchuk for whom they will be changed” (Ukrainian politician Viktor Medvedchuk, who was accused of treason in his homeland, was extradited to Russia in September 2022 as part of a prisoner of war exchange).
Ms. Pankina replied that although the article suggesting liability for sabotage “carries the maximum degree of public danger”, the Russian Criminal Code “contains other crimes that are higher in terms of the degree of public danger.”
Mr. Delyagin was also concerned regarding whether the scenes from the film “Brother-2”, which show the process of making ammunition, are subject to the rules on prohibited information. The first deputy chairman of the Duma Committee on Information Policy, Sergei Boyarsky (ER), recalled in response that in the first part of “Brother” there was “an equally colorful episode.” But “feature films are not subject to” the laws being amended, United Russia assured.
Oleg Nilov (SRZP) proposed extending to saboteurs the rules on the termination of Russian citizenship if it was acquired. Irina Yarovaya promised that the relevant committees would work on this proposal by the second reading. And Vladimir Isakov (KPRF) asked whether artists who “perform at our corporate parties, earn money, and then finance the Armed Forces of Ukraine” will be punished. In response, Mrs. Yarovaya suggested that the communist, if he had such information, apply to the authorized bodies.
As a result, 395 deputies voted for the amendments to the Criminal Code and the Code of Criminal Procedure, 396 for the bill on blocking the accounts of saboteurs, and 399 for supplementing the list of prohibited information. There were no votes once morest or abstentions. Irina Yarovaya expressed her wish that all drafts be adopted in three readings by the end of the autumn session and begin to operate from the new year.
