Russian Government Proposes 50-Fold Fine Increase for Distributing 'Extremist Materials'

The draft amendments would raise fines for individuals under Article 20.29, which covers the production and distribution of "extremist materials," from 1,000–3,000 rubles to 50,000–100,000 rubles, Novaya Gazeta Europe reported. Officials would face 100,000–200,000 rubles instead of 2,000–5,000, and legal entities 800,000 rubles to 2 million instead of 100,000 to 1 million.

Under the article on "discrediting the army" (Part 1 of Article 20.3.3), fines for individuals would rise from 30,000–50,000 to 35,000–50,000 rubles. For officials, they would increase from 100,000–200,000 to 200,000–370,000 rubles, and for organizations from 300,000–500,000 to 600,000 rubles to 1 million.

Violations at public events (Article 20.2) would become one and a half to two times more expensive. Fines for citizens under Part 1 would rise from 10,000–20,000 to 15,000–25,000 rubles, under Part 2 from 20,000–30,000 to 30,000–50,000, under Part 3 from 30,000–50,000 to 40,000–70,000, and under Part 5 from 10,000–20,000 to 15,000–25,000. For officials and legal entities, the amounts would roughly double.

According to Interior Ministry data cited by The Moscow Times, courts ruled on 16,244 protocols for violations at rallies between 2022 and 2025. The largest number, 13,529, came in the first year of the war with Ukraine. On "discrediting the army," 2,912 court decisions were issued in 2024–2025.

Petty hooliganism (Article 20.1) would double under Part 1, from 500–1,000 to 1,000–2,000 rubles, and triple under Part 2, from 1,000–2,500 to 3,000–7,500 rubles. Fines for smoking in prohibited places (Article 6.24) and drinking alcohol in banned areas (Part 1 of Article 20.20) would double.

Sanctions for legal entities and officials for failing to meet civil defense requirements (Article 20.7) would rise severalfold, as would fines for violating fire safety rules in forests (8.32), fire safety requirements (20.4), rules for loading and unloading ships (11.11), and the sale of alcohol products (14.16).

In an explanatory note, the government justifies the indexation by the need for "adequacy of punishment" to the current economic situation and by the fact that existing fines "do not contribute to providing an educational effect." The authors of the draft note that sanctions under Article 20.29 were established in 2007, and in 2015 only fines for legal entities were revised.

According to a financial and economic justification, implementation of the package of amendments should bring the budget about 5.3 billion rubles a year. Of that, roughly 3.1 billion would go to the federal budget and 2.2 billion to the consolidated budgets of the regions.

The day before, the Interior Ministry proposed more than tripling fines for failure to fulfill obligations before a court.