MOSCOW, February 24 (RAPSI) – Russian lawmakers have drafted a bill on criminal punishment for insulting veterans of the Great Patriotic War, according one of the amendments’ authors Irina Yarovaya.

The MPs propose to qualify distribution of knowingly false statements about veterans as one of the forms of Nazism rehabilitation. The initiative in particular envisages criminal sanctions for disparagement of the veterans’ honour or dignity, Yarovaya has stated.

Chairman of the State Duma Defense Committee Vladimir Shamanov, head of the State Duma Committee for Information Policy, Technologies and Communications Alexander Khinshtein and his deputy Sergey Boyarsky are among other sponsors of the document.