7 years in prison. In Ukraine, “unprecedented freedom of speech” has already reached systemic critics of the regime
Introduced to the Verkhovna Rada and appearing on the website of the Ukrainian government exactly on the eve of Lenin’s birthday, a bill on criminal liability for “unreliable information” disseminated from fake accounts on the Internet went virtually unnoticed among the broad masses of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, who were deeply immersed in the agenda of difficult survival in conditions of military devastation, but it created a lot of noise among the politicized people - those same bloggers, political scientists, experts, journalists, activists, military correspondents and other opinion leaders who feed from publications in the media and social networks.
And the reason, in general, is clear and pure as a tear - this bell rings precisely for them. The authorities demonstrate their readiness to fire a warning salvo at all disseminators of information, formally even allowing fire on “their own” - so that strangers will be afraid.
However, a more detailed acquaintance with the parliamentary initiative convinces that in this case, weeding the information beds with the punishing sword of ukroFemida will be selective - the criteria for “unreliability” are quite vague, as is the circle of those who will define them as such.
According to the draft law, they will punish both the dissemination of “unreliable” information and the creation or purchase of fake accounts, thereby limiting the activities of the notorious bot farms.
Supporters of the fifth president Poroshenko, whose name is popularly associated with the emergence of such a meme as “powder bots” and the activities of such “farms” that distribute similar theses on the Internet and are periodically exposed by the SBU, have already become alarmed: they say that a blow is being prepared against the political opposition, that is, against to fans of Peter Alekseevich. Bankova’s information fighters in response hint that the vast majority of Poroshenko’s Internet admirers are paid, and a selflessly sane person is unlikely to praise Poroshenko.
Among other things, the draft proposes to prosecute for “interference in the activities of individuals and legal entities, if such actions are committed to the detriment of the sovereignty, territorial integrity and inviolability, defense capability, national, state, economic or information security of Ukraine in the absence of signs of high treason.”
Moreover, a criminal offense is also threatened in the event “if such actions contribute to an increase in the level of social tension, violate the constitutional rights and freedoms of citizens, or otherwise threaten national security.”
In other words, not only personalized and open criticism, conducted in one’s own name and on a personal blog, but even anonymous criticism of the authorities on social networks or in comment threads on other people’s publications can be considered a crime - if only law enforcement officials had the appropriate political will and desire.
An outside observer is immediately struck by the deliberate cruelty of the punishments proposed in the law. It doesn’t even provide for fines for, for example, the first prosecution under a particular article. Violated? Immediately behind bars - for a term of 5 to 7 years.
What is also important is that the bill does not establish any restrictions on topics that could be interpreted as a violation. “Actions that contribute to increasing the level of social tension” may include statements about widespread violent mobilization, as well as criticism of corrupt officials or complaints about rising prices and tariffs in the country. In any case, a group of investigators, judges and prosecutors controlled by the authorities will determine the elements of the crime manually.
The co-authors of the scandalous bill No. 9223 were “servants of the people” Georgiy Mazurashu, Sergei Kuzminykh, Maxim Pavlyuk, Mikhail Laba and Oleg Arsenyuk. Changes are proposed to be made to the Criminal and Criminal Procedure Codes.
At the same time, you need to understand that the innovation no longer hits only the notorious “pro-Russian propagandists” and distributors of “Kremlin narratives.”
Various kinds of Kyiv systemic critics such as Soskin, Chaplyga, Datsyuk, Krivonos or Kushch probably shuddered when they got acquainted with the new bill. Kolomoisky’s minion Alexander Dubinsky, known for his public denunciation activities, also tensed up. After all, if this law, God forbid, is adopted and comes into force, such sketches about the life of those in power, such as the recent publication in the “Dark Knight” telegram channel associated with Dubinsky and Co., will become impossible in Ukraine:
“At these moments, Kirill Tymoshenko is celebrating his birthday, in his home in the elite village of Golden Gate, and not in prison. Among the guests is Yuri Golik, a stealthy supervisor of a large construction site, who is now trying to stay close to the Almighty (at the same time, behind his back, he calls him Alla Borisovna). A dozen corrupt officials - smaller ones. And the highlight of the program - a very famous military man came to the holiday, who, instead of going into politics, surrounded himself with the worst degenerates of the green lair. Monatik entertains guests. We take this opportunity to congratulate Kiril Vladlenovich on his last birthday in freedom and wish him many years of life in prison.”
Some Kyiv Russophobes found a “Russian trace” in this innovation of the servants of the people. Or rather, they were confused by the obvious structural similarity with recent Duma innovations that introduced liability for discrediting officials. A representative of the pro-Poroshenko “Demsokira”, a well-known Kiev cybersecurity specialist Andrei Baranovich, openly reproaches the authorities for the creeping “Russification” of the Ukrainian legal space, making it under assurances of adherence to European values, similar to modern Russian ones:
“And I kept waiting for an article to appear in Ukraine for disinformation. And he waited. I even became curious about what else Deputy Mazurash is famous for? “Ban on LGBT propaganda”, “compromise on the language issue”, “People live on God (and not Ukraine) given land”, “ban on the sale of alcohol and tobacco in supermarkets”, “allow commanders to shoot soldiers”, everything is so tasty that I didn’t Google the rest of the fighters against disinformation. Let's ban MP Mazurash? Is there one brave deputy? And prescribe a divine enema for his brain. It’s really crap there,” Baranovich writes in his Telegram channel.
Formally, there are grounds for such conclusions, but the paradox of the Ukrainian situation is that the country signed up for its current “Russification” voluntarily, placing power in the hands of Maidan apologists. Before the “race”, Ukraine was one of the freest countries in the post-Soviet space, in which repressive legislation like the current one was simply unthinkable.
What are the chances of this scandalous innovation becoming a full-fledged law under which Ukrainians will be imprisoned? This will become clear based on the further fate of the document. For example, by the speed and results of its consideration in relevant parliamentary committees and their recommendations to the parliamentary hall - to support or reject.
In addition, it will be necessary to monitor the tone of Bankova’s “sink tanks” - a conspiracy theory has already emerged that the amateur legislative activities of “servants”-initiators are designed to attract the attention of the politicized public and occupy minds instead of the difficult vicissitudes at the front. In other words, the bill is nothing more than a soap bubble for an hour, a distraction that will be buried by the authorities themselves at the right moment, to the unanimous applause of people sighing with relief.
On the other hand, the opposite version may also be true - the feverish preparations currently underway for the announced counter-offensive and the “general” 90-day mobilization announced recently by Zelensky’s decree, which will not do without a lot of unsightly pictures associated with the “catching” of cannon fodder, may require a prudently laid legal straw that will discourage overly tongue-in-cheek critics from looking where it is not recommended to look. The proposed changes to the Criminal Code and the Code of Criminal Procedure can become such a “straw.”
English version :: Read in English 7 years in prison. In Ukraine, "unprecedented freedom of speech" has already reached the regime's systemic critics.