31 Mar 2020 11:32

Russian State Duma adopts bill on fines of up to 2 mln rubles, prison terms of up to 7 years for violation of sanitary-epidemiological rules

MOSCOW. March 31 (Interfax) - The Russian State Duma adopted a bill on criminal liability for violations of sanitary and epidemiological rules leading to a mass outbreak of a disease or posing the threat of its spread in the third and final reading on Tuesday.

This initiative was submitted to the State Duma on March 25 by the chamber's Speaker Vyacheslav Volodin and Chairman of the chamber's Committee on State Building and Legislation Pavel Krasheninnikov.

The bill suggests penalties such as fines from 500,000 rubles to 700,000 rubles, a ban on holding certain posts or certain activities for up to three years, or a prison sentence of up to two years.

According to the document, violations of sanitary and epidemiological rules accidentally leading to people's death or deliberately posing the threat of a large-scale outbreak will be punishable by fines of one million rubles to two million rubles, or a prison sentence of up to five years.

Failure to abide by sanitary and epidemiological rules that accidentally leads to the death of two or more people will be punishable by up to seven years in prison.

The bill also takes note of amendments suggesting a prison term of up to five years for people who publicly spread false information.