On October 22, during a plenary session, the State Duma (Russia’s lower chamber of parliament) approved a series of bills in the first reading that amend migration legislation.

Kommersant says one of these bills introduces a ban on transferring the rights and responsibilities for organizing and conducting comprehensive exams for migrants to third parties.  It is proposed that the list of educational institutions authorized to test migrants be established exclusively by the government.

Another bill passed in the first reading introduces liability for legal entities involved in falsifying documents used to facilitate illegal migration.  For the first offense, fines will range from 5 to 10 million rubles, and for repeat offenses, from 10 to 60 million rubles.  Currently, fines for such violations range from 400,000 to 1 million rubles.

Fines are also increasing for existing violations under Article 19.23 of the Administrative Offenses Code of the Russian Federation (falsification and use of documents).  For falsifying a document proving the identity of a foreign citizen, the fine will be between 50,000 and 100,000 rubles, and for repeat offenses, between 100,000 and 300,000 rubles.  Presently, the fines range from 30,000 to 50,000 rubles for the first offense and from 50,000 to 100,000 rubles for the second.

Additionally, a bill was approved in the first reading to enable extrajudicial blocking of websites offering illegal migration services and methods.  Amendments are being made to the law "On Information, Information Technologies, and Information Protection."