Russian Duma passes new law: Prison for anyone criticizing the Wagner group

(Patria) - The Russian parliament has voted for a legal proposal to punish anyone who criticizes "volunteer" groups fighting in Ukraine, Sky News reports.

The Russian Duma, the lower house of parliament, has voted for amendments to an existing law that prohibits any critical or negative reporting about the Russian army.

An amendment to the law has been passed, through which Moscow seeks to "protect" mercenaries of the Russian private military company Wagner, who are fighting in Ukraine.

It should be recalled that Wagner was founded by a close ally of Russian President Putin - Yevgeny Prigozhin, and mercenaries of this military company have been trying to capture the eastern Ukrainian city of Bakhmut for months.

Prigozhin welcomed this move by the parliament in Moscow, which further expanded the comprehensive censorship in Russia introduced after the invasion of Ukraine just over a year ago.

In January, Prigozhin called on parliament to ban negative media reports about his fighters by amending the criminal code. Duma Chairman Vyacheslav Volodin quickly said he supported the idea.

The draft law needs to be approved by the upper house of parliament before being sent to President Vladimir Putin for final approval.

For "discrediting" the army, according to current Russian laws, one can receive up to five years in prison, and for "knowingly spreading false information" about Russian soldiers, up to 15 years in prison.

Russian prosecutors have already initiated more than 5,800 cases for discrediting the armed forces, according to the human rights group OVD-Info, and authorities have used laws against spreading false information to impose long prison sentences on long-time critics of the Kremlin, Hina reports.