“Foreign agents” and possibly bloggers will be fined for campaigning on social networks

The Supreme Court of Russia has prepared an explanation of issues related to pre-election campaigning, in particular, the ban on campaigning by “foreign agents” and bloggers. While the court’s decision is pending.

Those whom the Russian authorities consider to be foreign agents were banned from participating in election campaigns in any way as early as July 2022. Later, the Supreme Court explained that this applies to election monitoring, now it also applies to campaigning. Violation is punishable by a fine of up to one and a half thousand rubles for individuals, and up to thirty thousand rubles for legal entities. An exception is made for “foreign agent” candidates: they can campaign for themselves.

For agitation, they can start fining bloggers and – with the private interpretation of the lower courts – everyone in general. According to the explanations of the Supreme Court, citizens are prohibited from creating campaign materials, including audio-visual ones, with their own money or from “improvised” funds and materials.

All campaigning must be paid for from the candidate’s election fund, the court notes. Violation is subject to a fine of up to twenty thousand rubles for citizens and up to five hundred thousand for organizations. At the same time, it is allowed to provide “free” assistance to the candidate (for example, spreading his campaign).

Pre-election campaigning in Russia is considered to be calls to vote for or against a candidate, expression of a candidate’s preference, stories about the consequences of a candidate’s election, as well as activities “that contribute to the creation of a positive or negative voter attitude toward the candidate.”

The Supreme Court allowed including screenshots with relevant messages and materials on the Internet to be considered as evidence of violation.