The Kremlin did not evaluate the initiative to criminalize fakes about price increases

Press Secretary of the President of the Russian Federation Dmitry Peskov did not comment on the proposal to introduce criminal liability for fakes that provoke an increase in food prices. As a Kremlin spokesman said in an interview with reporters on Tuesday, this is a new initiative.

“I’m not familiar with this initiative, I heard about it, read it in the media. But what exactly is proposed, how it is proposed to qualify it and distinguish fake from not fake - I don’t know. Therefore, I cannot say that there is any position on this account. A new initiative," Peskov responded to the question of whether, according to the Kremlin, it is really necessary to punish such fakes.

Speaking about whether the Kremlin noticed messages with false information about price increases, he said: "There are many fake reports, but here you need to consider each specific case, it is difficult to generalize here." “If, for example, we consider messages that do not correspond to sociologists’ data or some generalized data to be fake, but we all know that different retail outlets can have different prices, and what is considered fake here?” Peskov explained. “I don’t know just as the author of this initiative puts it."

The State Duma proposed to punish fakes that cause an increase in food prices

Earlier on Tuesday, the Izvestiya newspaper, citing the document, reported that MP Anatoly Vyborny had developed a bill criminalizing the artificial creation of "panic demand for basic food groups (MEAT, fish, eggs, SUGAR, butter) and the spread of deliberate price fakes, provoking a sharp jump in the prices of these goods. He noted that one of the factors of a sharp price jump is the spread of deliberately false information that can cause an increase in the cost of products or create a shortage.