Posted on 03/08/2019 10:14:03 AM PST by CondoleezzaProtege
MOSCOW (AP) — Russian lawmakers passed legislation Thursday that imposes restrictions on online media and criminalizes anyone who insults the state.
The bill bans the spread of “unreliable socially-important information” that could “endanger lives and public health, raise the threat of massive violation of public security and order or impede functioning of transport and social infrastructure, energy and communication facilities and banks.”
The bill gives those who publish such information a day to correct or remove it. If they fail to do so, prosecutors will move to block them.
The bill introduces fines for publishing materials showing disrespect to the state, its symbols and government organs. Repeat offenders could face a 15-day jail sentence.
The bills are expected to quickly pass in the upper house before President Vladimir Putin signs them into laws.
The ultranationalist leader Vladimir Zhirinovsky spoke about the need to “fight lies that lead to revolutions and wars,” but added that his faction wouldn’t support what he described as insufficiently prepared legislation.
During Thursday’s debates, Communist lawmaker Alexei Kurinnyi warned that the authorities could use the “fake news” bill to punish critics.
Valery Gartung of the Just Russia faction also criticized the legislation, saying its vagueness will open the way for selective interpretation.
Communists, the Just Russia and Zhirinovsky’s faction vote along with the Kremlin wishes on key policy issues, so their criticism of the legislation highlights a degree of division.
(Excerpt) Read more at apnews.com ...
Hey....They got it good....You get punished for saying the “N” word here.
“Facts aren’t as good! important as owning the moral high ground.”
AOC
When I go to the hospital for brain surgery or anything equally dangerous, I sure hope MY doctor places FACTS well above his moral compass
Facts are irrelevent if you’re AOC selling Communism!
How Soviet of them.
Facts are immutable and the day I grew up is the day I learned that.
Complain about trash collection, fine, but criticize most of the governments in Western Europe over Islam and see what happens to your job, and sometimes your freedom.
Is it really that much different than what Russia is doing?
Imagine, a US led program to re-Sovetize Russia works!
There is a huge pressure on Russia from abroad to push it back to socialist dictatorship for nearly 10 years now.
There are basically two vectors.
First is using treasonous elements within civil society to ruin public consensus and polarize people against each other and against the government based on economic inaquality, ethnicity, religion, corruption etc. Its primary goal is to provoke the government into reaction in form of limits on liberty.
Another front is an economic war by the West with a primary goal to expand economic inaquality and ruin the Middle class thus expanding demand for socialism.
All of the above isn’t working as expected so far because Russia has certain pecularities but you can’t expect it to hold forever.
The problem of this approach is that Russia somehow differs from Africa or Middle East and it doesn’t hit either elites or proletariat but surely hits pro-Western yuppies. It is not good for an oligarch to have a net worth decreased from 15 to 11 billion usd but it won’t affect his quality of life much if any. For minimal wage earners a 10% price hike on domestically produced food or gas is somehow a problem but there is a difference in minimal wage between Russia and Africa so the hikes won’t actually cost them much in terms of their income.
But ironically when it comes to pro-Western yuppies it couldn’t be any more different. They loved Jaguars, Brioni and Prada, French wine and cheese and it is all imports and out of reach now due to a weak ruble. To add insult to injury this crowd was mostly on jobs which aren’t in highest demand during recessions. They’d be happy to register their outrage in the West but airfare and travelling costs are heavily tied to hard currency rates too and the fact that US and British consular services are now limited adds even more insult.
They’d like to blame Putin and his government over all of the above but it would make a comic relief because their problems aren’t coming directly from the government but from the West they loved so much.
That is basically why if a regime change in Russia is to ever occur it won’t be pro-Western.
The funniest thing is that everything you heard about Russia in media over last fifteen years is a lie and wishful thinking. There were no ‘empoverished people ruled by the iron fist’. It is exactly that the West want to hate back into existence.
Yep, pretty much nailed it. We’re given about as much truth regarding Russia as we are regarding Syria (and were in the Bosnia/Kosovo wars), and it is SICKENING to see the West getting played this way. Russia has a lot of nukes, and they are BIG NUKES, in fact the big ones were called “city busters” during the Cold War - no doubt they still have them (and yes, they are accurate, to about 100 meters, per a Russian I met who was in the army and tested them). We considered building the same, but could find no military purpose for them, as they wipe out such huge areas and populations, and we’re not into that (neither is Putin, but I also don’t blame him for keeping them, as China continues to get stronger).
Not too smart to be enemies with them, and for you Neocons, THE COLD WAR ENDED!!! almost 30 years ago now, GET OVER IT, and no, it wasn’t fun wondering if our country was going to wind up on “the ash heap of history” due to trying to take on the Soviets, and no, it isn’t fun now pricking Putin to see how much he’ll put up with. It is time to BE ADULTS.
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