← What you can be punished for online: a map of offences

Russia: words about the war

The guides below are drafts: a lawyer has not reviewed them yet. This is not legal advice.

КоАП 20.3.3 / УК 280.3

'Discrediting' the army, state bodies abroad and volunteer units

For what: Posts, reposts, comments, videos and stories; avatars with a yellow-and-blue flag or 'no to war'; a video in a WhatsApp status; forwarding a clip to local chats; likes where others can see them (Telegram, Viber, VKontakte, and since 2026 YouTube); words spoken aloud on a train, at work, in a courtyard. Posts count as a continuing offence, so old publications are punished too.

Penalty: First administrative: art. 20.3.3 part 1 fine of 30,000 to 50,000 rubles, part 2 (with calls to unauthorised protests or a 'threat' to order) 50,000 to 100,000. A repeat within a year of the first penalty: art. 280.3 part 1, fine of 100,000 to 300,000 rubles, arrest or up to 5 years. Art. 280.3 part 2 (profit, 'for hire' or grave consequences) is criminal at once: up to 7 years. Property confiscation possible since 2025. The limitation for 20.3.3 is disputed: art. 4.5 of the CAO does not list it among one-year offences (general term 90 days), but Mediazona reports one year, and courts count it from the day the post is found. For 280.3: 6 years for part 1, 10 years for part 2.

Practice and how people are found

From 24 Feb 2022 to 24 Jul 2025 courts received 11,591 cases under 20.3.3; 1,500 in 2025 (2,158 in 2024) (OVD-Info). SOVA estimates about 1,300 penalties under 20.3.3 in 2025. Criminal art. 280.3 in 2025: 17 new defendants per OVD-Info, at least 37 per SOVA; 39 convicted in H1 2025 (Judicial Department via SOVA).

Murmansk region, 2026: a pensioner fined 30,000 rubles for likes on three YouTube videos, found by FSB border guards on his phone. Zabaikalsky Krai, 2026: a woman fined 30,000 rubles for a mobilisation video forwarded to local WhatsApp chats a year earlier. Komi, 2025: a 150,000-ruble fine under 280.3 for a comment in a town VKontakte group. Tatarstan, 2026: a 71-year-old local historian got 6 years (280.3 and 205.2) for an anti-war post.

Denunciations by neighbours (in Khakassia a neighbour recorded a woman on a dictaphone), fellow passengers, train staff and colleagues; followers of closed accounts; social media monitoring by Center E and the FSB; phone checks at the border. First Department estimates that dozens or hundreds of cases began with denunciations of words said in front of a few people.

УК 207.3

'Fakes' about the army, state bodies abroad and volunteers

For what: Posts, videos, stories and chat messages about the army's actions that the authorities call 'false': civilian deaths, Bucha, strikes. Even a tiny channel or a building chat. Applied to old posts too; in one case stories about the 2008 war with Georgia became an episode.

Penalty: Criminal, no administrative stage. Part 1: fine of 700,000 to 1.5 million rubles, forced labour or up to 5 years. Part 2 (including 'motivated by political hatred', by a group, or using an official position): fine of 3 to 5 million rubles or 5 to 10 years. Part 3 (grave consequences): 10 to 15 years. Limitation: 6 years for part 1, 10 for part 2, 15 for part 3.

Practice and how people are found

45 to 47 new cases under 207.3 in 2025 (79 to 80 in 2024); 422 defendants in total by February 2026 (OVD-Info). 46 people convicted in H1 2025; 34 of 36 convicted under part 2 got real prison terms (Judicial Department via SOVA).

Obninsk, 2025: 2 years of forced labour for a message about Bucha in a building chat. Nizhny Novgorod, 2025: two former lyceum students got 2.5 years each for a video in a Telegram channel with 26 subscribers. Moscow, September 2026: the head of a well-known children's hospice was detained under 207.3 over a 2023 post.

Denunciations (in the Nizhny Novgorod case the lyceum director filed the complaint), monitoring.

More: Criminal Code, art. 207.3 (ConsultantPlus); OVD-Info, 30.01.2026 (foreign agent, extremist); OVD-Info, 25.08.2026 (foreign agent, extremist); OVD-Info, 24.02.2026 (foreign agent, extremist); SOVA Center, 22.10.2025 (foreign agent); Mediazona, 29.05.2025 (foreign agent, extremist materials in Belarus); Mediazona, 10.04.2025 (foreign agent, extremist materials in Belarus); Mediazona, 02.09.2026 (foreign agent, extremist materials in Belarus)

УК 280.4

Public calls for activity against state security

For what: Posts and comments calling on soldiers to surrender or not to fight, to 'destroy bunkers' and similar, where other articles do not apply. Almost always for online activity.

Penalty: Criminal, no administrative stage. Part 1: fine of 100,000 to 500,000 rubles or 2 to 4 years. Part 2 (including via the internet or 'motivated by hatred'): fine of 300,000 to 1 million rubles or 3 to 6 years. Part 3 (organised group): 5 to 7 years. Used when arts. 205.2, 280, 280.1, 280.3, 284.2 do not apply. Limitation: 6 years for part 1, 10 years for parts 2 and 3.

Practice and how people are found

Judicial Department: 18 convicted in 2024, 15 in H1 2025; almost all verdicts known to SOVA are under part 2 'c' (internet) (SOVA Center, Oct 2025 and Apr 2026).

Udmurtia, 2025: a 3-year suspended sentence for a 2023 Telegram comment calling for bunkers to be destroyed.

Monitoring of social media and messengers; in more than half of cases 280.4 is not the main charge, often combined with 205.2 (SOVA).

More: Criminal Code, art. 280.4 (ConsultantPlus); SOVA Center, 04.2026 (foreign agent); OVD-Info, 15.09.2025 (foreign agent, extremist); OVD-Info, 02.2025 (foreign agent, extremist)

КоАП 20.3.4 / УК 284.2

Calls for sanctions against Russia, its citizens or companies

For what: Public calls on foreign states to impose or extend sanctions on Russia, its citizens or companies. Applies only to Russian citizens.

Penalty: First administrative: art. 20.3.4, fine of 30,000 to 50,000 rubles (Russian citizens only). A repeat within a year: art. 284.2 part 1, fine up to 500,000 rubles or up to 3 years. Art. 284.2 part 2 (profit or 'for hire') is criminal at once: up to 5 years. Limitation: 90 days for 20.3.4, 2 years for 284.2 part 1, 6 years for part 2.

Practice and how people are found

Rarely used: 21 people in total were penalised under 20.3.2 and 20.3.4 in H1 2025 (SOVA Center, Oct 2025). We found no verified figures for criminal art. 284.2 in 2025 and 2026.

No verified anonymised examples from 2025 and 2026 were found.

Police trawl social networks with monitoring systems (OVD-Info).

More: CAO art. 20.3.4 (ConsultantPlus); Criminal Code, art. 284.2 (ConsultantPlus); SOVA Center, 22.10.2025 (foreign agent); OVD-Info, 30.01.2026 (foreign agent, extremist); OVD-Info, 25.08.2026 (foreign agent, extremist)

УК 207.1 / 207.2

'Fakes' about emergencies and socially significant 'fakes' with grave consequences

For what: Posts presented 'as reliable' about emergencies, epidemics, accidents or protective measures (207.1), or any 'socially significant' falsehood that caused harm to health or death (207.2).

Penalty: Criminal. 207.1 (falsehoods about threats to life: epidemics, accidents, disasters, protective measures): fine of 300,000 to 700,000 rubles, labour or restricted liberty up to 3 years, no prison. 207.2 (falsehoods causing harm to health): fine of 700,000 to 1.5 million rubles or up to 3 years; up to 5 years if someone died. Limitation: 2 years for 207.1 and 207.2 part 1, 6 years for 207.2 part 2.

Practice and how people are found

We found no verified 2025 and 2026 figures or examples; OVD-Info and SOVA reviews of 2025 do not list these among the main articles.

No verified examples.

Social media monitoring.

More: Criminal Code, art. 207.1 (ConsultantPlus); Criminal Code, art. 207.2 (ConsultantPlus)