On July 17, Russia’s State Duma adopted the second reading of controversial legislation that would make it illegal to search for or access “extremist materials” on the Internet, but public concerns may delay passage of the third and final reading. Following criticism from Russia Today editor-in-chief Margarita Simonyan and Safe Internet League head Ekaterina Mizulina, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters on Thursday that lawmakers should provide more detailed explanations of their plan to impose fines on “extremist” Internet searches.
“I am not familiar with this initiative from the deputies. I don’t know the details, so I can’t comment. The only thing is that yes, judging by yesterday and today, this topic has immediately generated considerable public interest. It seems they just need to provide more detailed explanations of this initiative to address people’s questions,” said Peskov.
A day earlier, Margarita Simonyan criticized the bill, warning that it would restrict her staff’s ability to “investigate and stigmatize” the activities of groups declared “extremist” by the Russian authorities, such as the Anti-Corruption Foundation, created by Alexey Navalny. Ekaterina Mizulina has raised similar concerns, saying that a ban on searching for “extremist” materials would prevent her organization from monitoring the Internet and create legal problems for anyone trying to report unlawful Internet content.