MOSCOW, October 15 (RAPSI) – Russia’s State Duma has passed in the first reading a bill envisaging amendment of the Code of Administrative Offences as to introduction of severe administrative fines for refusals to restrict access to or remove banned content from the Internet, according to the official website of the lower house of the Russian parliament.

The proposed fines are to amount to 15 million rubles (almost $200,000 at the current exchange rate).

At present Russia’s legislation lacks provisions setting responsibility of websites owners and web resources for failures to comply with requests to remove or restrict access to the information prohibited for dissemination in the territory of the Russian Federation, the explanatory note to the bill reads.

An article setting fines for such offence for citizens in the range from 50,000 to 100,000 rubles ($650 to $1,300), for officials at 200,000 to 400,000 rubles ($2,600 to $5,100), and for legal persons at 800,000 to 4 million rubles ($10,300 to $52,000) is to be incorporated in the Code of Administrative Offences, according to the note.

Besides, repeated offences are to be fined more severely; for citizens they will make from 100,000 to 200,000 rubles ($1,300 to $2,600), for officials from 500,000 to 800,000 rubles ($6,500 to $10,300), and for corporations from 4 to 8 million rubles ($52,000 to $104,000).

Tougher punishments are envisaged in cases of failures to restrict access to the information containing calls for extremism, pornographic images of minors, and data on purchase, manufacture, or use of drugs. The respective fines are to make: for citizens from 100,000 to 200,000 rubles ($1,300 to $2,600), for officials from 400,000 to 800,000 rubles ($2,600 to $10,300), for corporations from 3 million to 15 million rubles ($39,000 to $195,000).

The same offences, if repeated, are to be fined 200,000 to 500,000 rubles ($2,600 to $6,500) in case if committed by citizens, from 800,000 to 1 million rubles ($10,300 to $13,000) for officials, and from 8 to 15 million rubles ($104,000 to $195,000) for corporations.