Payback for freedom

Yesterday, a bill was considered to increase fines for offenses during mass protests. Amendments to the Code of the Russian Federation on Administrative Offenses suggest an increase in fines for illegal actions during rallies, demonstrations, processions and picketing to 1.5 million rubles.

Consideration of this bill was postponed from last week to Tuesday, May 22, as three parliamentary parties - A JUST RUSSIA, the Communist Party of the Russian Federation and the LPRF - announced that they would leave the plenary hall in the event of an extraordinary, truly lightning-fast appearance of this initiative on the agenda. In my opinion, the authorities’ desire to push through a completely odious bill without a clear study of the topic is at least not smart, and at most harmful. It is clear that United Russia is trying to have time to adopt new norms by June 12 – the next protest action. But such a gesture can only lead to a further escalation of protest sentiments. The bill in its current form provokes people, since it is exclusively repressive in nature and goes against Article 31 of the Constitution of the Russian Federation. A little more, and a new abbreviation will “stick” to the party in power - PDNS - Party of the Stranglers of People's Freedom. By the way, I said this during my speech as part of the “ten minutes”.

I agree that fines for violations of public order, morality, morality, and health are ridiculous today. And for the fifth year now, the proposals of A JUST RUSSIA, aimed at an adequate response for such administrative violations, have been shelved. But the gentlemen from United Russia only remembered the need to reform the Administrative Code when they needed to “pinch” their political opponents. And how much slyness: they made defectors from other parties the authors of the initiative. For me, the behavior of traitors is transparent - you have to earn 30 pieces of silver and get dirty.

A JUST RUSSIA is categorically against the bill in its current form. It contradicts both the ideology of social democracy and simply common sense. Naturally, we are not going to condone extremism or any violations, but we understand who this initiative is directed against. Passing the bill as written now puts virtually unlimited power in the hands of the local bureaucracy. Let’s say we are holding a rally, said 10 people speaking in a certain order. If even one person speaks out of turn, the event organizers can be fined.

At the faction meeting on Monday, we decided to boycott the consideration of this bill. We ignored the “discussion” (more like a farce), refused questions, because we understood: United Russia was not going to change their point of view at the first reading. A FAIR RUSSIA has its own line, its own position, the manipulations of the party in power against us are useless. This means that we will not pass this bill without a fight. We will prepare amendments for the second reading and will insist on them.

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