Maxim Ali has provided his comments on the potential increasing of fines for promoting drug use online

The Russian Interior Ministry has prepared a bill that will toughen the punishment for owners of internet resources and host providers that distribute and share illegal information about drugs. The new penalties will significantly increase the financial liability of lawbreakers.

Maxim Ali, Head of the IP and IT Practice at Maxima Legal, explained to Advokatskaya Gazeta that the introduction of a separate offence for online criminals is impractical. Despite the fact that current legislation on the promotion of drugs, is addressed primarily at, for example, sellers of goods with pictures of cannabis leaves, the legislation can also be used to regulate the internet. However, “with the current approach of law-enforcement, websites such as Wikipedia again come under attack. Furthermore, the enforceability of penalties against lawbreakers on the internet, who can always hide behind foreign legal entities and domain zones, is extremely difficult – again, only the usual blocking of websites might be an effective measure against them”, commented Maxim.

According to Maxim Ali it is interesting that the proposed changes include a somewhat concealed objective, to increase the potential penalties that can be issued against network operators who provide access to information that is illegal. “It is worth noting that these penalties relate to any prohibited content, in other words, the proposed fine for operators of up to 800,000 roubles can apply to situations when information relating to business reputation or information on unsanctioned meetings is not removed promptly”.

To read the material in full (in Russian), please see the Advokatskaya Gazeta’s website >>>