Article 207.3 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation

Article 207.3 criminalizes the "public dissemination of knowingly false information" about the use of the Russian armed forces and, since later amendments, about the activity of other state bodies abroad. It was added to the Criminal Code by Federal Law No. 32-FZ on 4 March 2022, eight days into the full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Part 1 provides for up to three years; Part 2, which covers acts committed using an official position, by a group, with fabricated evidence, or out of political or other hatred, provides for five to ten years; Part 3, for acts with grave consequences, ten to fifteen years.

In the documented caseload the "false information" is almost always an ordinary statement about the war: a post about Bucha or Mariupol, a street picket, a video, a comment under someone else's post, an antiwar remark to colleagues that was reported. Courts treat the Defence Ministry's briefings as the measure of truth, so the offence is in practice contradicting them. The first prison sentence, seven years for Moscow municipal deputy Alexei Gorinov in July 2022, set the pattern for Part 2 cases, and the co-charging with Article 205.2 (justification of terrorism) or 354.1 (rehabilitation of Nazism) visible below is how sentences are lengthened further.