State censors

Russia bans criticism of Wagner

Russia is expanding laws that punish criticism of its army to protect mercenaries from the Wagner Group.

Moscow brought the amendments before parliament to strengthen censorship laws, enabling anyone found to have discredited the armed forces and private military organisations including the Wagner Group to be imprisoned for up to 15 years.

Yevgeny Prigozhin, head of Wagner which is attempting to storm Bakhmut in eastern Ukraine at present, complained in January that bloggers and social media channels criticising his fighters could not be punished under existing Russian laws.