Moscow officials are introducing a new ban on posting about the aftermath of drone strikes in the capital, specifying that they apply to essentially everyone.
According to a statement released on Wednesday by the city’s mayoral office, the restrictions prohibit individual residents, organizations, media outlets, emergency services, and government agencies from publishing “text, photos, and videos” about such attacks.
The only authorities permitted to do so are Russia’s defense ministry and information channels run by the mayor, Sergei Sobyanin, per the statement.
“The capital’s Anti-Terrorism Commission adopted this regulation in order to prevent the dissemination of false information,” Sobyanin’s website said.
Official Russian information on the effects of Ukraine’s drone strikes is usually scarce, but residents regularly post videos or photos on social media of resulting fires or explosions.
Such footage has become a primary way for many open-source investigators and Ukrainian units to confirm or verify the damage caused by successful attacks.
Now, individual residents in Moscow may be fined up to 5,000 rubles, or $67, while officials may be fined up to 50,000 rubles for posting such content without permission. The fine for legal entities and organizations could stretch up to 200,000 rubles, per the statement.
The national median wage in Russia is about per month, according to Sberbank, the country’s largest state-owned bank.
Sobyanin’s new measure was announced as Ukraine recently ramped up pressure on Moscow in the week of Russia’s annual Victory Day parade, peppering the capital with long-range drone strikes in the lead-up to the event.
The attacks, which also happened last year, forced temporary closures of some airports and prompted authorities to throttle mobile internet services in a bid to disrupt drone signals.
In an example of the type of footage now banned, damage from a recent attack on a luxury high-rise, just four miles from the Kremlin, was filmed from multiple angles by bystanders. The clips showed debris strewn across a main street, where emergency vehicles were gathered late at night.
Moscow’s ban echoes a similar rule imposed in the United Arab Emirates in March, when the US and Israel’s war with Iran prompted Tehran to launch waves of long-range drones at its neighbors.
Filming or posting footage of the Iranian strikes could result in penalties including deportation for foreigners, up to two years in prison, and fines totaling up to $54,449.
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