OREANDA-NEWS. The State Duma of Russia has adopted in the second reading a bill on the rules of election campaigning on the Internet, the correspondent of «Rosbalt» reports. The new rules give the Central Election Commission (CEC) the right to determine the specifics of the production and distribution of campaign materials. At the same time, the CEC, as well as territorial and regional election commissions, are given the right to apply to «Roskomnadzor» with a demand for immediate blocking of illegal content.

Deputies from the «Communist Party» and «Fair Russia» said, that the new rules effectively deprive ordinary users of social networks of the right to express their own opinions about parties and candidates during elections under the pretext of illegal campaigning.

«This is an absolutely repressive law. Any comment (in social networks), if it contains a call to vote for any party or candidate will be considered a violation», said communist Alexei Kurinny. At the same time, he doubts, that «Roskomnadzor» will have time to block millions of Internet pages and accounts. «The blows will be applied to the most promising pages», the deputy said.

It was also passed the bill, which deals with increasing fines for violating the rules of election campaigning. For citizens, they will amount to 20 thousand rubles (about $270), for officials — up to 50 thousand rubles (about $670), and for legal entities — up to 500 thousand rubles (about $6.700).