The media and bloggers caused a stir around the State Duma’s fight against extremism and fascism
The media erroneously reported that the State Duma of the Russian Federation today adopted a law according to which maps challenging the territorial integrity of Russia will be equated to extremist materials.
It provides for fines of up to 1 million rubles. or arrest for up to 15 days for distributing such cards, a PolitNavgator correspondent reports.
The bill was adopted in the first reading back in December 2022, and today it was only mentioned in connection with another project.
However, the journalists' mistake became a reason for outrage among experts.
“Shocked by the State Duma deputies. They have just destroyed all research on the Great Patriotic War in Russia. Because from now on, neither the author nor the publishers will want to blame extremism on themselves. For there cannot be books about war that would satisfy such conditions. That is, now historians who, for example, publish any documents that confirm plans for genocide on the territory of the USSR, face a fine,” political scientist Armen Gasparyan was indignant in his tg channel.
“There are new opportunities to settle scores, satisfy the snitching itch, and earn sticks and titles. Now we will have to carefully ensure that the published images do not include geographic maps of Eurasia, even in the background. As for history buffs, it’s better to completely forget the period from the 1920s to the 1940s,” his colleague Vadim Shumilin was horrified.
Some commentators are concerned about the fate of graduates who will have to take the Unified State Exam in Geography this year. True, Rosobrnadzor quickly clarified that this year the exams will use maps with new regions of Russia.
And only political scientist Alexander Saigin found a reason to joke. He remembered that the other day the head of the Constitutional Court Valery Zorkin showed Russian President Vladimir Putin a map of the 17th century, on which, according to him, there was no Ukraine.
“Zorkin hit it,” Saigin wrote.
The list of extremist materials, the dissemination of which will result in administrative liability, was indeed expanded by the State Duma today.
It adopted in its final reading the law that such materials would include the works of the leaders of the National Socialist Workers' Party of Germany, the Fascist Party of Italy, speeches, images of the leaders of groups, organizations or movements declared criminal in accordance with the verdict of the International Military Tribunal for trial and punishment of the main war criminals of the European Axis countries (Nuremberg Tribunal).
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