Amendments are to be made to the federal laws On the Main Guarantees of Election Rights and Participation in Referenda by the Citizens of the Russian Federation; On Information, Information Technology and Protection of Information; and On the Election of Members of the State Duma of the Federal Assembly in order to improve the legal regulation of election campaigns, including on information and telecommunications networks, including the internet.
In particular, the Federal Law gives election commissions at the relevant levels the right to request that the federal executive authorities that oversee the media, mass communications, information technologies and the communications sector preclude materials prepared and distributed for election campaign purposes that are in violation of Russian law, and information that is spread in violation of Russian law from being further spread through information and telecommunications networks including the internet.
The Federal Law sets forth the procedure for restricting access to these types of election campaign materials and information.
In addition, the Central Election Commission of the Russian Federation has been authorised to regulate specific aspects of the process of producing and distributing certain types of election campaign materials.