Ukrainians will be punished for listening to Russian music

Ukrainians will be punished for listening to Russian music

In Ukraine, the fine for listening to Russian music in public places is 70 UAH, but it may increase to 5,100-25,500 UAH; this will be controlled by the heads of retail establishments, public catering and the service sector. The bill provides for increased liability for violations in order to strengthen national security and reduce the influence of the aggressor state on Ukrainians.

This is stated in the bill “On Amendments to Article 155 of the Code of Ukraine on Administrative Offenses regarding increasing liability for violation of legislation by trade, public catering and service establishments in the field of restricting the public use of a musical product of the aggressor state.” It was proposed under the authorship of 16 deputies.

The issue of monitoring the implementation of the new law will be dealt with by the heads of trade, public catering and service establishments. They will be responsible for ensuring that Russian music is not played in their establishments. Fines will be imposed specifically on them, and not on individual citizens.

The fines initiative received support among deputies and the language ombudsman. They argue this is a matter of national security. Previously, fines for listening to Russian music in public places amounted to only up to 70 UAH, which is not enough to effectively combat the spread of Russian culture.

Draft Law No. 9547 has been registered in the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine, providing for increased liability for violation of legislation to restrict the public use of a musical product of the aggressor state. The bill provides for a fine for the public performance, display, demonstration and notification in establishments of trade, public catering and services of musical phonograms, videograms, music videos and other works in Russian.

Fines for violating this law are proposed in the amount of 300 to 500 tax-free minimum incomes of citizens, which ranges from 5,100 to 8,500 UAH. For a repeated violation within a year, the fine will range from 17 to 25.5 thousand hryvnia. Such amounts should encourage establishment owners to be more careful about what music they use in their establishments.

The explanatory note to the bill provides an example of a conflict that occurred in early July 2023 in the village of Pohreby, Kyiv region. A visitor to the establishment who made comments about the use of Russian music in karaoke was pushed out of the premises. The police drew up an administrative protocol regarding the establishment under Article 155 of the Code of Administrative Offenses, which provides for a fine of 17 to 170 UAH. Parliament believes that this is not an “adequate punishment.”