The State Duma has passed a bill introducing criminal liability for the “desecration” of military monuments.

The State Duma has passed a bill in its second and third readings introducing criminal liability for the “desecration” of military memorials and monuments. The bill has been published on the website of the “System for Legislative Activity Support” of the State Duma.

The changes affect Article 243.4 of the Criminal Code, which previously provided for liability for the destruction or damage of military graves as well as monuments, steles, obelisks, and other memorial structures “commemorating those who died defending the Motherland or its interests, or dedicated to Russia’s days of military glory.” Now, people will also be prosecuted for “desecration” of these objects.

“Since February 2022, more than 370 high-profile incidents of desecration of military graves and other sites commemorating those who died defending the Motherland have been recorded across the Russian Federation, which have not received adequate criminal-legal assessment,” says the explanatory note to the bill.

Currently, the destruction or damage of such monuments carries a penalty of a fine of up to three million rubles (about US$32,000), up to three years of community service, or up to three years’ imprisonment.

Violation of the second part of Article 243.4 of the Criminal Code can carry a penalty of up to five years’ imprisonment. The second part applies where the alleged crime is committed by a group, involves violence, or relates to monuments and graves connected to events of the Great Patriotic War (Second World War).

In recent years, people accused of desecrating monuments to military glory have already been prosecuted under the article on rehabilitation of Nazism (Article 354.1 of the Criminal Code). In the vast majority of cases, this concerns cases involving the desecration of the Eternal Flame—dancing, cooking, drying clothes, and other actions around the memorial.

The third part of Article 354.1 of the Criminal Code provides for up to three years’ imprisonment for “spreading information that clearly expresses disrespect for days of military glory and commemorative dates of Russia related to the defence of the Motherland, as well as desecration of symbols of military glory, insulting the memory of defenders of the Motherland, or degrading the honour and dignity of a veteran of the Great Patriotic War, committed publicly.”

It is unclear exactly how the State Duma’s amendments will be enforced. It is possible that cases previously prosecuted under Article 354.1 of the Criminal Code will now be classified under Article 243.4. As the SOVA Centre for Information and Analysis notes, the expansion of the legislation could lead to dual qualification in such cases.