By Galina Korol | 2025-07-31

In Russia, even a typo in your search bar could soon cost you. A bill that fines computer users for looking up so‑called extremist content online, including through virtual private networks (VPNs), has passed both houses of parliament and is now on President Vladimir Putin's desk, awaiting his signature.

The legislation, approved after three readings in the State Duma and backed by the Federation Council on July 25, would impose fines of 3,000 to 5,000 RUB (about $30 to 60) for "improper" search queries. VPN use would not shield users from liability and could even be considered an aggravating factor, according to state media reports.

The bill began life in June as a technical measure on cargo transport violations, but lawmakers dramatically rewrote it during debate, making it one of Russia's most sweeping internet control proposals yet.

If signed, it could add to a long line of laws tightening the state's grip on online speech.

Bots justify the move

Russian authorities are seeking to reassure citizens that the bill will not affect ordinary users. Ahead of the State Duma's final vote, a bot campaign amplified the message on social media.

More than 400 pro-government accounts posted more than 800 comments on VKontakte starting July 16, mainly under state media pages, independent outlet Verstka, citing Botnadzor data, reported on July 17.

The comments repeated claims that "those who don't violate the bill have nothing to be afraid of" and that the measure targets those deliberately seeking or spreading "dangerous materials."

Some posts framed the fines as protecting citizens from scams and extremist propaganda. Others linked the proposal to the war in Ukraine, saying it would "deprive Ukrainian intelligence services of resources to recruit our citizens." Several commenters said that no "normal person" would look for extremist ideas online.

The bill is a "compassionate initiative," said some officials.

Users will not face penalties for simply visiting banned platforms such as Facebook or Instagram, Maksut Shadayev, Russia's digital development minister, told RBC in July.

Fines under the bill would apply only to intentional searches for material already on the Justice Ministry's list of banned extremist items, he said.

That list already has more than 5,500 extremist items and continues to grow. Shadayev did not clarify how investigators would prove intent.

Yevgeny Stupin, a rights activist and former Moscow City Duma deputy whom the Kremlin has labeled a foreign agent, questioned the logic behind the law.

"I'm certain that not a single lawmaker who voted for this bill can name all 5,500 of these websites. Why should an ordinary citizen who isn't passing laws and isn't obligated to follow politics at all, and isn't especially interested in politics, know this?" Stupin, who now lives abroad, told Kontur.

From totalitarianism to worse

Russia's proposed fines for searching extremist content online mark a sharp escalation in state control over information, say lawyers and activists.

Assurances requiring security officials to prove a user's intent offer little real protection, Valeria Vetoshkina, a lawyer with the Movement of Conscientious Objectors to Military Service in Russia, told Kontur.

"No one will go to any trouble [to honor those assurances]," she said, adding that the measure continues the state's path toward total control "not just of expression but of thought" too.

In the past, Russians faced prosecution for publishing or sharing banned material, she said. Now, if the bill becomes law, "they'll be prosecuted just for reading it."

Alexandra Garmazhapova, president of the Free Buryatia Foundation, was blunter.

"The Kremlin is now openly telling the world that Russia is a totalitarian state," she told Kontur.

All new initiatives under Putin should be viewed "through a prism of totalitarianism," she said, adding it is "too late to look for [various] shades of cannibalism."

Mikhail Liberov, coordinator of Vetoshkina's conscientious objectors' group, called the bill unprecedented.

"For the first time in modern Russian history, the authorities want to punish the public not for producing content but for consuming and even searching for it," he told Kontur.

Past efforts to "stigmatize the producers" and block access to their content were "not successful enough," said Liberov. Future rules could extend fines to those who read or search for information about "objectionable organizations" or "foreign agents," he said.

Belarusian experience

Analysts who spoke to Kontur drew parallels between Russia's proposed fines for online searches and long-standing repressive practices in Belarus.

The measure mirrors Belarusian tactics where suspects face punishment "not just for participating but for subscribing, commenting or liking," said Vetoshkina.

Russia is "stepping up its mimicry of these repressive instruments" while giving them "the veneer of lawfulness," she said.

The bill as of now establishes administrative liability, said Stupin, adding that "at the rate things are going, it's not out of the question that it will progress to criminal liability."

The proposal reflects the Kremlin's wider repressive machine, Liubov Tsybulska, director of the Kyiv-based group Join Ukraine and a specialist on hybrid threats, said.

The system seeks to prosecute "everyone who doesn't consume content controlled by the Kremlin," she told Kontur.

Over time, the apparatus turns inward: "The machine always starts off devouring outside enemies, then it moves on to neutral [targets], and then it starts to eat itself."

The law will split Russians into two groups: those who avoid information that displeases the government for fear of punishment or out of digital illiteracy, and those who use VPNs or private browsers, juggling between "for show" and "personal" devices, said Liberov.

"Belarusians already have this experience," he said. "Even in China people can access the real internet."