Russian Investigative Committee to stop spread of fakes on special military operation in Ukraine with criminal law tools - committee head

MOSCOW. March 2 (Interfax) - Russian Investigative Committee head Alexander Bastrykin has demanded that the spread of false information on the special military operation in Ukraine be stopped using criminal law instruments, according to a report published on the website of the Investigative Committee's Directorate for the Moscow region on Wednesday.

According to the report, Bastrykin "has set the goal to ensure, within the granted powers, the suppression using criminal law instruments of the spread of false information on events related to the special military operation to defend the LPR and the DPR."

The order was issued at a meeting "on the organization of the work of territorial investigative bodies in the conditions of the special military operation to defend Donbas," the report said.

"The agency head ordered to create interagency investigative and operative groups in territorial investigative directorates of the Russian Investigative Committee for immediate reaction to accidents associated with the events in Ukraine, suppression of extremist and terrorist manifestations, unauthorized protests and provocations, other actions aimed at destabilizing the situation in Russia," the report said.

The Investigative Committee also said Bastrykin "separately emphasized the need to take, in cooperation with other state agencies, exhaustive measures to identify and suppress the activities of persons spreading calls for violations of public order, unauthorized actions during the period of the special operation, as well as persons who initiate replication on the Internet, messengers and social networks of illegal and destructive user content."