Russia’s parliament has approved a controversial new law that makes it a criminal offence to spread “fake” news about the war in Ukraine – punishable by up to 15 years in prison.
It comes as the Kremlin tightened its grip on information about its invasion, moving to close down the websites of foreign and independent websites – including the BBC.
The Duma – the lower house of Russia’s parliament – also approved a tranche of sanctions against “foreigners who infringe on the rights of Russian citizens”, including asset freezes and bans on their companies operating in Russia.
The “fake news” law would also make it an offence to call for sanctions against Russia, punishable by up to three years in prison, while those found guilty of “discrediting” the Russian army could be jailed for up to five years.
Moscow continues to refer to the war as a “special operation” that was necessary to prevent an attack against Russia from Ukrainian territory; state media has described videos of Russian missiles falling on Ukrainian cities as “disinformation”.
Vyacheslav Volodin, the parliamentary speaker, said western social media companies should be targeted as a “priority”.
“Western information technology companies are being used against us like weapons, spreading hatred and lies, and we should take care of them first of all,” he said in parliament. “And then next week take care of the stabilisation of the economy.”
Foreign media outlets are expected to be expelled from Russia in the coming days. Police in Moscow this week raided the offices of Memorial, the country’s oldest human rights group. The organisation was closed down after being labelled a “foreign agent” by the Kremlin.
Russian journalists who opposed the country are also trying to flee the country, amid fears that Moscow could introduce martial law as soon as today. A rush to the borders has seen flights selling for ten times the usual price.
The BBC has seen an increase in traffic to its Russian language news website since the invasion of Ukraine began.
It said the site’s audience rose to a record 10.7 million people in the last week – more than triple its year-to-date weekly average.
Visitors to the English language bbc.com in Russia were up 252 per cent to 423,000 last week.
In a statement, the BBC said: “Access to accurate, independent information is a fundamental human right which should not be denied to the people of Russia, millions of whom rely on BBC News every week.
“We will continue our efforts to make BBC News available in Russia, and across the rest of the world.”
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