Translated material
Fine for rape
"A Just Russia" proposes to punish for coercion to join parties
Deputies of the A Just Russia faction yesterday submitted to the State Duma a bill establishing administrative liability for coercion to join a political party. The authors of the document propose to set a fine for citizens in the amount of 5 to 10 minimum wages, and for officials - from 20 to 30 minimum wages.The head of the Duma faction “A Just Russia” Alexander Babakov, in a conversation with journalists, noted yesterday that membership in a political party should be exclusively voluntary. He said that recently cases of coercion of citizens to join a political party “by officials and management of various organizations” have become more frequent. “We are talking, in particular, about coercion to join a political party, including by force or through the threat of violence, or using a person’s dependent position,” said Mr. Babakov.
It is obvious that the draft law of the Social Revolutionaries is directed primarily against United Russia . For a long time now, reports have been appearing from time to time about how entire teams of factories, factories, schools, hospitals and other institutions are supposedly being forced into the party in power - under the threat of layoffs, liquidation of enterprises or cessation of funding. But such stories remained only rumors until the case of mass recruitment under the threat of dismissal of workers at Tolyatti AvtoVAZ received loud publicity. It was then that the A Just Russia party took the initiative to submit to the State Duma a bill designed to prevent such practices. Meanwhile, United Russia began checking the facts of forced entry into the party of workers of the Volzhsky Automobile Plant. However, nothing is known about the results of this check yet.
The United Russia faction will not support the A Just Russia bill. As Vice-Speaker of the State Duma, member of the United Russia faction Vyacheslav Volodin told reporters yesterday, there is no need to discuss this topic at all. “Party members who are forced to join the party are of no use to anyone - they are ballast, they are blood clots.” According to Mr. Volodin, people who joined the party involuntarily are a burden for it. “Why load a ship where there should be energetic people who should move it?” - says the deputy.
Yesterday, the first vice-speaker from the United Russia faction, Oleg Morozov, expressed his position in solidarity with his colleague in a conversation with journalists: “How do you imagine the procedure for implementing this law? Will anyone, under torture, tell how he was forced to join the party?” Mr. Morozov sharply condemned those who could theoretically use such measures: “If such a practice exists, it is flawed. We are not interested in mechanically replenishing our members. And if someone does this, then merciless measures will be applied to him, because he discredits the party,” the parliamentarian promised.
The initiative of “A Just Russia” did not find support among the communists who seemed to be in opposition to “United Russia”. “Why do we need administrative responsibility? No, we will not support it. I believe that party building cannot be strengthened in such ways,” Valentin Kuptsov, vice speaker of the State Duma from the Communist Party of the Russian Federation faction, told reporters yesterday. He considers it unnecessary to introduce such an administrative penalty.
“A Just Russia” itself will also soon fill its ranks with members of the People’s Party, which is now headed by United Russia deputy Gennady Gudkov . Oleg Morozov, commenting yesterday on the future merger, called it reasonable, since the People's Party has always adhered to social democratic positions, and this is exactly the ideology that A Just Russia declares. He also explained why the party, whose leader is a member of United Russia, is not uniting with it. According to Mr. Morozov, Mr. Gudkov “may have found a place in United Russia, but there may not be a place for members of his party.” The main problem of A Just Russia, according to Mr. Morozov, is that “they do not have enough personnel and they have to look for figures to fill places on the electoral lists.”
In general, speaking about the development of the Russian political system, Oleg Morozov said yesterday that, in his opinion, in the future it will take place along the path of “cloning parties from the bowels of United Russia.” “The entire political elite is in United Russia, both right and left,” the first vice speaker of the State Duma proudly stated. Moreover, according to United Russia members, the influx of the entire elite into this particular party occurred without the slightest coercion.