MOSCOW, March 19 - RAPSI. The State Duma has adopted a bill in the third and final reading on fining media outlets for using strong language.

Penalties for the production and distribution of media content featuring expletives include a fine of between 2,000 and 3,000 rubles ($65-$97.30) and confiscation of the product for private individuals, a fine of 5,000 to 20,000 rubles ($162-$650) and confiscation of the product for officials, and a fine of 20,000 to 200,000 ($650-$6,500) and confiscation for legal entities.

Deputy Speaker Sergei Zheleznyak (United Russia), a co-author of the bill, hopes that the upper house will hear the bill on March 27. He said that the current law stipulates responsibility for using expletives in public places, but not in media outlets, although they ought, in fact, to be considered public places.

There are two articles in the Administrative Offences Code for the use of expletives, one on abuse, with a fine of 1,000 to 3,000 rubles ($32.40-$97.30) for private individuals and 50,000 to 100,000 rubles ($1,620-$3,240) for legal entities, and the other for minor hooliganism, with a fine of 500 to 1,000 rubles ($16.20-$32.40). Fines for public abuse range from 3,000 to 5,000 rubles for private individuals and from 100,000 to 500,000 rubles for legal entities.

Dmitry Vyatkin, United Russia, deputy head of the State Duma Constitutional Committee and the house's representative in the Constitutional Court, said that the bill cannot cite the prohibited expletives because there is no one list of these words. Expert philologists will determine which words shall be considered expletives, he said, adding that they would consult dictionaries of expletives and corresponding research.