Russia to make using AI, VPNs, or basic tech an aggravating crime factor
Officials in Russia have discovered that digital tools actually exist, and their immediate reaction is, naturally, to slap longer prison sentences on anyone who touches them.
Head of the Investigative Committee Alexander Bastrykin drafted a bill to amend the Russian Criminal Code. The proposal adds the use of information technologies, AI, VPN services, and proxy servers as a universal aggravating circumstance for all criminal offenses.
While current Russian legislation already regulates VPN tools used to access blocked websites, Bastrykin argued that piecemeal amendments to individual criminal articles are far too inefficient. Instead, the initiative seeks a sweeping blanket rule that boosts prison sentences for any offense where modern tech plays a role, ranging from online fraud to violent crimes.
According to the agency, digital networks can amplify the overall scale of harm or act as the primary tool for committing illegal acts. The draft law specifically targets cyber fraud, unauthorized data trafficking, and attacks on critical digital infrastructure as primary targets for the tougher sentencing framework.
A typical bureaucratic response to technological progress involves threatening citizens with extra prison time for using a basic encrypted connection. Authoritarian legal logic dictates that if a smartphone was anywhere near a crime, the digital era itself is legally at fault.
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