Coronavirus: A look at what is happening in Russia

Russia's strong quarantine regime

This is an article which appeared in RT, written by a NZ-based legal and political analyst.

A lot of people have a pretty rose-tinted view of Putin and Russia which, although I support Russia in many regards, especially geopolitically.

However, Russia is still a country that has roots in 

authoritarianism and is capable of taking strong actions that 

sometimes go against human rights.

I found the following reports (in Russian) that, although they 

had taken early protective action to close its borders it too is 

capable of taking actions that in some ways mimic the 

actions f western government (although hopefully without the 

confusion – I have seen evidence that they have been 

thoroughly testing people arriving at airports.

The State Duma adopted amendments to increase the punishment of legal entities for fake pandemics

Госдума приняла поправки об ужесточении наказания юрлиц за фейки о пандемии

https://www.interfax.ru/russia/701715

Moscow. March 31. INTERFAX.RU - Amendments to toughen the punishment for legal entities for disseminating fakes about circumstances that pose a threat to the life and safety of citizens, adopted by the State Duma.

Article 13.15 of the Code of Administrative Offenses is proposed to be supplemented with new parts 10.1 and 10.2. According to article 10.1, it is proposed to introduce punishment for disseminating knowingly false information about circumstances that pose a threat to the life and safety of citizens in the media and “information and telecommunication networks”.

Article 10.2 will regulate the dissemination of knowingly false information to the media that caused the death of a person, caused harm to health or property, entailed a massive violation of public order, and the cessation of the functioning of life support facilities.For this they will be punished with administrative fines in the amount of 1.5 million rubles to 3 million rubles with or without confiscation of the subject of an administrative offense.

For this, legal entities will be punished with an administrative fine in the amount of 3 million to 5 million rubles with or without confiscation of the subject of an administrative offense.

For repeated violation, they will be fined between 5 million and 10 million rubles.

The State Duma adopted a law on criminal punishment for violation of quarantine

Госдума приняла закон об уголовном наказании за нарушение карантина

https://ria.ru/20200331/1569386789.html

MOSCOW, Mar 31 - RIA News. The State Duma adopted in the third reading a bill on criminal liability for quarantine violations.

The document was initiated by the head of the state building committee, Pavel Krasheninnikov, and the chairman of the lower house, Vyacheslav Volodin . Changes will be made to the Criminal Code and the Code of Criminal Procedure.

Now the need to remain isolated due to coronavirus is advisory in nature, and sanction for it is possible only if the violation led to someone else's death or mass infection.

In accordance with the new bill, violators of the sanitary-epidemiological rules face a fine of 500 thousand to 700 thousand rubles, or deprivation of the right to a profession for up to three years, or two years of forced labor, or imprisonment for up to two years.

If the violation led to the death of a person or created a threat of mass disease of people, then it is proposed to punish him with a fine of one to two million rubles, five years of forced labor or imprisonment - also for five years.

In the event of the death of two or more persons, the maximum term of imprisonment shall be increased to seven years.

Deliberate violation resulting in death will be qualified as terrorism, hooliganism or sabotage and will be punished under the relevant articles of the Criminal Code. The Investigative Committee will investigate serious crimes in this area, and the police will deal with less serious crimes.

The bill also criminalizes the spread of fakes about the situation with the coronavirus. Depending on the circumstances and consequences, the violator may face a fine of 300 thousand to two million rubles, forced labor for a period of several months to five years, restriction of liberty for up to three years or imprisonment for up to five years.

The World Health Organization on March 11 announced the outbreak of a new coronavirus that causes COVID-19, a pandemic. According to the latest WHO data , more than 690 thousand cases of infection have been recorded in the world, over 33 thousand people have died.

According to statistics from Johns Hopkins University, more than 785 thousand people fell ill with COVID-19, 37 thousand died, 165 thousand patients recovered.

The first by number of deaths is Italy (over 11 thousand dead), followed by Spain, China, the USA and France.

In Russia, 2337 patients with coronavirus were identified (1613 of them in Moscow ), 17 people died, 121 recovered. In many regions of the country, a self-isolation regime is in effect, and air and rail links with other states have been discontinued.

Meanwhile, in Hungary...