New punishment for death threats will be introduced in the Criminal Code

They want to introduce a new punishment in the Criminal Code (CC) for death threats — we are talking about adding a third part to Article 119 of the Criminal Code ("Threat to kill or cause serious harm to health"), which establishes an additional qualifying sign for threats if they were associated with a demonstration of one's national, religious, political, ideological, or racial affiliation., or with a statement of support for such a threat. As Izvestia found out on October 23, such a bill was prepared for submission to the State Duma by the head of the Committee on Labor, Social Policy and Veterans Affairs, Yaroslav Nilov.

According to the explanatory note to the document, which Izvestia has, the attacker's use of references to a certain social group to justify his own impunity is aimed at inciting hatred or enmity among the victim towards this social group.

"Such statements are aimed at creating a deliberately false opinion that such criminal behavior of an attacker is approved and justified in this social group, moreover, such criminal behavior is defended by force," the document says.

It also notes that such precedents make a significant contribution to the increase in criminal extremist activity in the country and provoke interethnic and interreligious strife, as well as impunity for mono-ethnic organized criminal groups.

"We believe that the adoption of the bill will not only prevent crimes and eliminate threats to the life and health of citizens, but also eliminate the facts of incitement to hatred based on political, ideological, racial, national or religious hatred in our multi—confessional and multinational society," Yaroslav Nilov, the author of the bill, explained to Izvestia.

In his opinion, the new rules will also help protect the image of authorities from illegal manipulations used to cover up criminal motives and create a safer environment at the level of everyday communication, which, of course, meets the interests of society and the country as a whole.

Yevgeny Masharov, a member of the Civic Chamber, said on October 21 that a draft law on amendments to the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation, according to which the age of responsibility for sabotage is proposed to be lowered to 14 years, may be adopted in the near future. According to him, this initiative is timely, as it is aimed at maintaining effective measures to combat sabotage activities.

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