MOSCOW – President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday signed a series of laws giving Russia new powers to curb US social media giants, label individuals as ‘foreign agents’ and curb the disclosure of the personal data of its security officials.
The laws, which also introduce new restrictions on protests, provide a year of constitutional reform, enabling Putin (68) to stand two more terms in the Kremlin for six more years instead of retiring in 2024 , as he was legally obliged to do.
Other reforms, such as one that gives former presidents lifelong immunity from prosecution, have kept analysts guessing about his plans, as Moscow’s ties with the West have come under renewed pressure over the poisoning of Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny.
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One of Wednesday’s laws allows Russia to block or restrict access to sites that “discriminate against the media”, which is part of a campaign under Putin to increase Russian Internet sovereignty that has fueled fears controlled for a creeping China-style.
Twitter currently calls Russian media ‘state-affiliated media’, a move declared by Moscow. Supporters of the law have cited complaints about Facebook, Twitter and YouTube about prejudice.
A second law imposes hefty fines of up to 20% of last year’s Russia revenue for sites that repeatedly did not remove the banned content, something that YouTube and Facebook often did not do, according to Russian lawmakers.
A third law prohibits the disclosure of the personal data of Russian security officials, records that are sometimes leaked online and used by investigative journalists to detect covert operations.
Earlier this month, investigative website Bellingcat used flight records and other data to identify a group of suspected Federal Security Service agents who accused Navalny of trying to poison him in August, an allegation denied by Moscow.
Other new laws have introduced imprisonment of up to two years for defamation online, as well as new regulations that would ban the financing of protests by “foreign agents” and allow rallies to be banned due to emergencies.
Another law gave authorities new powers to label individuals as “foreign agents” and also give them five years in prison if they did not report their activities correctly.