The Duma Has Passed a Law Banning Samizdat Channels Operating From Donbass

There is no one left to read anyway.

And now, per tradition, I have some more bad news from Russia to share with you.

The Duma passed a law effectively censoring coverage of the war being done by Russian soldiers because of its “discrediting” nature. Here:

Legal analysis of the law on the ban on the use of gadgets and the provision of information about themselves and their work by military personnel, which was adopted in an accelerated manner by the State Duma.

In addition to the fact that the State Duma hastily adopted a law prohibiting military personnel from using gadgets unless it is combat work. The State Duma has prohibited military personnel from protecting their rights, receiving wages, transferring money to their families, participating in the "Time of Heroes" project, working with volunteers and much more (all this follows from paragraph 19 of the law - in the photo above). Due to the wording of the law, soldiers will be completely cut off from life and the rear. The State Duma has turned them into disenfranchised slaves.

1. The law contradicts the Constitution of the Russian Federation. The author of the law, Mr. Kartapolov, assures that this is just a referral norm of the existing law No. 76. However, this is not so, the State Duma has given permission - without trial or investigation, to put in a pit anyone who violated the listed prohibitions. The new law clearly states that the punishment for violation is from 2 to 10 days of arrest (i.e. a pit, basement) at the commander's discretion. However, Article 22, paragraph 2 of the Constitution of the Russian Federation states: "Until a court decision, a person cannot be detained for more than 48 hours." 2. The text of Kartapolov's law states that its provisions on 10 days of arrest without trial for a disciplinary violation apply only to privates, and only to men. This also contradicts Article 19 of the Constitution, which states that the state guarantees the equality of all before the law and the court, their rights and freedoms, regardless of any circumstances, including official position. Also, according to the Constitution, men and women have equal rights and responsibilities. In fact, Kartapolov deprived all men from private to sergeant in the SVO zone of their rights. And Kartapolov and all the deputies who voted do not even know that we have a lot of commanders in the status of privates, since the State Duma and other authorities are so incompetent that they cannot solve the problem of restoring ranks. They should probably put themselves in a hole.

3. The State Duma deprived soldiers at the front of the right to protect their rights. Clause 19 of the law states that now the dissemination of information that does not contain state secrets, but determines the citizen's affiliation with the RF Armed Forces, as well as information about the activities of military command bodies, etc. via the Internet - is 10 days of arrest by the commander, without trial or investigation. That is, if a soldier told his wife on Telegram, via Wi-Fi, that he was being sent to storm the city wounded and on crutches, then the commander is obliged to put him in a hole for this. Also, if he filled out an appeal on the website of the military prosecutor's office, or sent it by e-mail - also 10 days in the basement or a hole. That is, any appeals of soldiers and their family members through State Services, via e-mail, to any government agency are punishable by arrest. Even to the President, the Federal Defense Ministry, and the Ministry of Defense itself. With this law, the State Duma has once again trampled on the constitutional rights of soldiers - Art. 46 - Everyone is guaranteed judicial protection of their rights and freedoms. Art. 48 - Everyone is guaranteed the right to receive qualified legal assistance.

4. In addition, the State Duma, with unconstitutional formulations banning gadgets and providing information about themselves and their units, has banned soldiers from using their personal account on the Ministry of Defense website, using the military system "Alushta", participating in the presidential project "Time of Heroes", and all their communications regarding the social and legal sphere of life. And this is also a complete block on communication with volunteers, if a soldier writes that his unit lacks FPV drones and asks for help, he can be arrested.

The law is unenforceable and unconstitutional. Among other things, it will lead to clashes between combat front-line soldiers and rear-line military police and commandant's office employees.

The law will also lead to an outflow of volunteers to the front. There are not enough people at the front as it is, Sobyanin is even offering more money, since people are not going, and the Duma is working against the front.

If this goes through and the FSB starts shutting down samizdat Telegram channels that I rely on for info, then they can essentially say anything about what is really going on with this war. It would become a totally “Orwellian” situation, and I usually hate referencing that old Trotskyist scumbag, but the descriptor in this case is indeed apt.

Our favorite madman war boss Serb said that he and Rusich would ignore the federal law.

The law on restricting the use of civilian gadgets by military personnel in the SVO zone has been adopted by the State Duma.

We absolutely don't care... we will continue to use them the way we did before.

Let them fire us if they don't like it.

If things were as the government said they were on the front, would they be passing laws to censor raw footage coming in from the front?

Rhetorical.

By the way, you should read what I wrote about Serb’s tell-all interview:

But lots of others also expressed their disappointment with the new censorship controls. Here:

You passed a law that will either not be enforced or our country will lose the war if it is. Don't you understand this? According to your law, soldiers will not even be able to say thank you to volunteers. Or ask for help. And how much abuse will there be from their commanders? And how will a soldier prove that his personal smartphone is also used to communicate with his comrades-in-arms via the Telegram messenger because there is no other closed communication on the front line, but he communicates with his wife or mother using the same gadget? Will the commander have to rummage through the phones of his subordinates every day?

But that's not all. The deputy does not stop there. Should we go further and re-create penal battalions [for those who use phones]? He has lost touch with reality. He refers to Lenin 😂. Under Lenin, there was power of the people and there were no rich kids. And they were strictly held accountable for the misuse of budget funds. [Dubious, but I understand the sentiment].

And now the Duma wants to create official penal battalions of condemned prisoners sent to die on the front. At least there is leaked footage of Sobolev saying that this needs to be done. Would they send the soldiers who still have Telegram channels into these penal battalions?

Serb again:

If they want to create penal companies and penal battalions, then let them first send their children to the army and to the front, and then show off.

They sit and have fun, their children live in America, eat in restaurants, and the soldiers who cannot take a break should now be committed to penal companies at the whim of the command.

P.S. Yes, yes, we are writing from those same gadgets that were banned yesterday, which they supposedly should have confiscated from us, and for which we should have received 10 days of punishment.

If only the Russian government spent as much time fighting their supposed enemies as they do fighting their own soldiery.

📌❗️⚡️ Attention, action item!!

The Duma adopted a dangerous bill on disciplinary arrest for smartphones and other gadgets of SVO participants. The entry into force of this law can undermine the combat readiness of the army, complicate the work of volunteers, and lead to mass violations of the rights of military personnel. Let's URGENTLY write to Matviyenko in the Federation Council (the meeting will be on August 2) http://pisma.council.gov.ru/send_anonymous/ and to President Putin http://letters.kremlin.ru/letters/send

Let’s hope that the law is repealed.

It probably won’t be. But even if it were, who is there even left to read?

Related: if you haven’t read the news, the remnant Wagnerites who were exiled from Russia to Africa were massacred in an ambush in Mali. This deserves a separate post dedicated to it, but new details are still coming out and so I am not sure what to report yet. Preliminary reports indicate that they were fired on by their own. But in the group of 200-some Wagnerites, the channel admin for Grey Zone was killed.

His callsign was Beliy which means White (nationalist).

Pretty much everyone that I read at the start of the SMO is now dead or in prison (soon to be dead). No one can prove anything, of course, but the one thing that united all these voices was that they were strong critics of Moscow’s ruling cabal.

Also: perhaps the timing is significant.

Right before all these talks of negotiation (capitulation) with the West and now there are more draconian censorship laws passed and the remnants of Wagner are eliminated.

Not enough information yet though to make any conclusions.

I’m just spit-balling here.

Probably, this was just Jesus defending Putin like he did Trump’s ear by getting rid of evil-doers. That strikes me as the most logical explanation.