Russian woman to FACE COURT for allegedly spreading coronavirus FAKE NEWS

With most of Europe and Asia presently under some form of emergency measures to fight the spread of Covid-19, now is probably not the best time to scare people even more.

A woman in Russia's Far East is set to appear before a court on charges of spreading false information about coronavirus in her remote region. The Amur Oblast where she resides has yet to report a case of the disease, despite bordering China, the original epicenter.

On the official regional police website, a statement explained that in the process of “monitoring social networks,” law enforcement discovered she had “disseminated facts about coronavirus that did not correspond to reality. In particular, [saying] infected people were reported on the territory of the Amur Region.”

The police department said, “This information is false.”

The woman who hails from the city of Svobodny will stand trial on the basis of violating a law on ‘abuse of the freedom of mass media’, introduced last year amid some controversy over how it might be used. She faces a fine up to a possible 100,000 rubles ($1,224).

On Wednesday, Russia’s media watchdog Roskomnadzor warned people of their responsibilities when spreading false information about Covid-19 and explained that they carry out round-the-clock monitoring of mass and social media.

Speaking to the press on Wednesday, Olga Kurganova, the local Amur Region department head of consumer watchdog Rostrebnadzor, explained that the epidemic situation in the region is stable and no confirmed coronavirus cases have been registered in the area.

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