MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 10th April, 2020) Investigators in Russia's Siberian Republic of Buryatia have launched a criminal case into an incident of spreading false information about the coronavirus outbreak in the country, the Russian Investigative Committee said in a statement, adding that the information was being disseminated from abroad.
According to the statement, a foreign citizen is accused of the dissemination of knowingly false information on their webpage on social media accounts.
The suspect claimed that there were over 300 coronavirus cases in one of Buryatia's districts, whereas the official number of infections in the region stands at 61, the investigative committee said.
The suspect's identity and whereabouts are currently being investigated, the statement added.
Russia has passed some of the strictest laws against spreading false information about the coronavirus pandemic, threatening real jail time and levying heavy fines for incorrect statements disseminated with malicious intent.
