Russia: In 2013, in response to mass opposition protests in 2010-2011, the Criminal
Code was amended to expand the definitions of treason and espionage, which now
include “providing financial, technical, advisory or other assistance to a foreign state or
international organization… directed at harming Russia’s security.” The expanded law
also considers ‘treason’ to include passing information on to foreign and international
organizations if the organization plans to use it to harm Russia’s national security
interests. Under the law, a person convicted of ‘high treason’ faces up to twenty years
imprisonment. Human rights activists around the world decried these changes to the
law as “directly threaten[ing to] the exercise of protected fundamental rights”23 and as
so “vague as to enable the government to brand a critic as a traitor.”24 Those closely
monitoring events in Russia have noted that the new law “is clearly having a chilling
effect on freedom of expression and the right to freedom of association.”25 For example,
human rights observers noted that in the lead-up to the Sochi 2014 Winter Olympics,
much of the Russian news media failed to report on sensitive issues, such as the
exploitation of migrant workers or environmental destruction, creating an “information