Russia backs jail time for 'fake' army news, restricts media AFP
Categories: FOREIGN COUNTRIES
Russian lawmakers moved Friday to impose harsh jail terms for publishing "fake news" about the army, which a senior lawmaker said will apply to foreigners too, as Moscow moves to muffle dissent over its invasion of Ukraine."If the fakes led to serious consequences, (the legislation) threatens imprisonment of up to 15 years," the lower house of parliament said in a statement. The past year has seen an unprecedented crackdown on independent and critical voices in Russia that has intensified since the invasion.The chairman of parliament Vyacheslav Volodin railed against foreign social media after Facebook was briefly inaccessible in Russia on Friday."All these IT companies beginning with Instagram, and ending with the others, are based in the United States of America. It is clear they are used as weapons. They carry hatred and lies. We need to oppose this," he said. Russia's media watchdog said Friday it had restricted access to the BBC and other independent media websites, further tightening controls over the internet.Russia's invasion has already claimed hundreds of lives, displaced more than a million people and spurred allegations of war crimes.Western-led sanctions levelled against Russia in retaliation have sent the ruble into free-fall forcing the central bank to impose a 30-percent tax on sales of hard currency after a run on lenders. Russian media have been instructed to publish only information provided by official sources, which describe the invasion as a military operation. Ekho Mosvky -- a liberal-leaning radio station majority-owned by Russia's energy giant Gazprom -- said Thursday it would shut down after being taken off air over its Ukraine war coverage.Authorities had on Monday blocked the Ekho website and took the station off air as punishment for spreading "deliberately false information" about the conflict.