Russian Federation Council approves bill on fines for online search for extremist content, VPN advertising

MOSCOW. July 25 (Interfax) - The Russian Federation Council on Friday approved a bill regulating administrative liability for the owners of VPN services and introducing fines for the deliberate search of extremist materials online.

Thus, Article 13.53 on liability for deliberately searching online for "materials known as extremist" and included in the list of extremist materials and gaining access to them, including via VPN services, will be added to the Code of Administrative Offenses. Such actions will be punishable by fines of 3,000 to 5,000 rubles.

Chairman of the State Duma's Information Policy Committee Sergei Boyarsky said earlier on his Telegram channel, when commenting on the bill, that the amendments penalize the intentional search online for extremist content included in the Justice Ministry's list of extremist materials.

"It currently comprises about 5,500 materials of the sort," Boyarsky said.

The amendment does not envisage fines for accessing Instagram and Facebook, banned in Russia, via VPN.

According to deputy head of the Duma's Committee on Information Policy, Information Technologies and Communications Anton Gorelkin, under the bill, "the very fact of using VPN will not be qualified as an offense".

Deputy head of the Duma's Security and Anti-Corruption Committee Ernst Valeyev, for his part, told journalists that, under the bill, fines will be imposed only for the deliberate search for extremist materials online.

"Citizens have nothing to be afraid of if they do not intentionally search for extremist materials," Valeyev said.

The amendments stipulate liability for advertising VPN services that will carry a fine ranging from 50,000 to 80,000 rubles for individuals, from 80,000 to 150,000 rubles for officials, and from 200,000 to 500,000 rubles for legal entities.

The bill also stipulates that a VPN service owner's failure to adhere to the procedure of interaction with telecommunications watchdog Roskomnadzor will carry a fine ranging from 50,000 to 80,000 rubles for private individuals, from 80,000 to 150,000 rubles for officials, and from 200,000 to 500,000 rubles for legal entities.

Refusal by a VPN service owner to register with the state system of informational resources with restricted access or their failure to restrict access to informational resources prohibited in Russia shall entail an identical fine, according to the amendments.

Repeatedly committing the abovementioned offenses by private individuals would carry a fine ranging from 100,000 to 200,000 rubles, by officials from 200,000 to 300,000 rubles, and by legal entities from 800,000 to 1 million rubles.