06 July 2007, 15:57
State Duma has passed the law on fighting extremism
The Russian State Duma has passed in the third and final reading the law on strengthening the struggle against extremism, the RIA "Novosti" reports.
The law preserves the norms on extremism of the legislation adopted in the second reading, which give special agencies more freedom in tapping telephone conversations of citizens, forbid mass media to disseminate information about extremist organizations; besides, the law will penalize any public justification of terrorist activities. The responsibility has been introduced for willingly false accusing officials of extremism.
Amendments were also made in the laws "On Counteracting Extremist Activities," "On Mass Media," "On Operative and Search Activities," "On Federal Security Bureau (FSB)," and also in the electoral legislation, regulating elections of the President and deputies of the State Duma, the ITAR-TASS reports.
The Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (RF) was added by such aggravating circumstances as "committing a crime on the motives of political, ideological hatred or enmity in relation to a certain social group," and the responsibility was introduced for involving minors in this sort of crimes. The RF Code on Administrative Offences now includes responsibility for dissemination of extremist materials, the NEWSru.com reports.
