Shameful act for the legislator

Members of the two commissions of the Public Chamber (on the development of civil society and on interethnic relations and freedom of conscience) gathered at the end of last week for discussing the draft Federal Law “On Amending the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation and individual legislative acts of the Russian Federation in order to counteract the insulting religious beliefs and feelings of citizens, and smiling objects” were practically unanimous in their frying the document.

The project proposes to introduce criminal liability “for public insult, humiliation of worship”, other religious rites and ceremonies of religious associations “constituting an integral part of the historical heritage of the peoples of Russia”, as well as for a public insulting religious beliefs and feelings of citizens. The desecration of objects and objects of religious veneration, places intended for worship, as well as damage and/or destruction of such objects (places) - again belonging to religious associations that “constitute an integral part of the historical heritage of the peoples of Russia”, should also be criminally punishable. For insulting feelings, fines of up to 300 thousand rubles or imprisonment for up to 3 years and fines of 100 to 500 thousand rubles, or mandatory work up to 400 hours, or imprisonment for up to 5 years - for desecration are threatened.

The speakers considered the bill from different parties - and together criticized it for legal failure, in particular for the blurry of the formulations, and the mismatch of both Russian and international legal norms.

The Chairman of the Commission of the OP on the development of civil society , Joseph Diskin, is most worried that in the case of the adoption of the law, the space of values ​​for the whole country will determine, albeit significant, but groups of people. Moreover,, as a rule, he noted, the most radical groups take on this work. And this is a direct path to the destruction of the social world. We need a completely different concept of regulating such things - perhaps a certain system of “fencing”, delimitation of space: went to the opera “Jesus Christ is a superstar”, so do not shout that you were offended. The common space for all citizens should be protected from the expansion of the fundamentalists.

The head of the OP commission on interethnic relations and freedom of conscience, Nikolai Svanidze directly called the law of harmful. He does not make up, namely, that brings up discord, brings a split between citizens of the country - divides them into two varieties: believers, “correctly believers”, and all the rest, “non -traditional”, which are not subject to protection. Meanwhile, someone can insult three-euplicles, and someone two-parting-and who is more “traditional” here? Someone will insult the statement of “God”, and someone is a short skirt ... And what is the “humiliation of worship”? Or "worldview symbolism", which also cannot be insulted? And if someone smeared the swastika-is it punishable? Legislators must first of all be a ruler of the rule of “do not harm”, in this case this is not noticeable, the line was failed by Nikolai Svanidze.

Member of the Public Chamber and the head of the Synodal Department for the relationship between the Church and Society, Archpriest Vsevolod Chaplin, saw a political background in criticism of the bill.

“The church has nothing to do with this project, but many believers expressed consonant thoughts,” he said. - The wording of the "feelings of believers" is already present in the current right - in the Code of Administrative Offenses (Code of Administrative Offenses). Why are they trying to challenge her now? I think for purely political reasons. There are people who do not want those actions that are now being arranged against temples, synagogue, mosques, would be stopped, ”the priest said.

Vsevolod’s father has nothing against the fact that the secular worldview symbolism, for example, symbols of communist ideology, was also protected by the state (is it strange that the priest first occurred to protect the symbols of God -Gothic ideology?). “Our worldviews are equal,” he admitted, “including in their influence on public life.”
Deputy Secretary of the Public Chamber Vladislav Mushroom concentrated on the legal side of the issue. The bill on many clauses contradicts the Constitution of the Russian Federation and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights that Russia signed in 1992. Leaving the document in the document like “humiliation of worship”, we give the court the right to decide what it is. And this threatens us with the most unexpected consequences. You can not introduce after each, even egregious, cases of new legislative norms, he is sure. The Russian criminal and administrative codes contain all the necessary articles, for example, Article 282 of the Code of Administrative Offenses already contains sanctions for “actions aimed at initiating hatred or enmity, as well as to humiliate the dignity of a person or group of persons on the grounds of gender, race, nationality, language, attitude to religion, as well as belonging to any social group, committed publicly or using the media”. However, this year, under article 282, only five cases were instituted. If the situation with the humiliation of the dignity of believers is so catastrophic, why are things not initiated?

A member of the OP and the head of the Russian Pentecostals Sergey Ryakhovsky is also convinced that the possibilities of existing legislation were not exhausted. And the new bill is clearly made hastily, requires many clarifications. And it is unlikely that it makes sense to produce such documents, while there is no concept of state-confessional relations. “If the developed bill is adopted, then I, as a Protestant, will sue the sectors and obscurantists who insult us, the law will clamp the beliefs of the faith and plunge us into the Middle Ages,” Ryakhovsky said.

The leader of the pro -Kremlin organization Russia Young and also a member of the OP Maxim Mishchenko turned out to be one of the few who joined the hearing to Father Vsevolod Chaplin. He urged those present to support the bill, for Vera is “the last opportunity to protect yourself from aggression of transnational corporations” and maintain the sovereignty of Russia.

The director of the Sakharov Center , Sergei Lukashevsky, on the contrary, believes that the project undermines Russian law and Russian legislation. To accept it means to discriminate against all the other, the so -called non -traditional, religions, which contradicts the law "On the freedom of conscience and religious associations." In addition, the introduction of the proposed norms will prohibit the expression of certain beliefs, because any word of an atheist can offend the feelings of the believer.

The current Russian legislation contains sanctions for insulting representatives of the authorities and the military, Lukashevsky recalled, now they are trying to add certain religious organizations to them - and in terms of status they will be even higher than representatives of the authorities and all others.

The director of the Institute of Religion and Law Anatoly Pchelintsev expressed the point of view that the technical fulfillment of the law generally gives out legislative voluntarism. "He would be cut down by a sortone." The project essentially encroaches on the basics of the constitutional system of Russia, experts should have been wrapped in an early stage, but no one invited experts to discuss the bill - Pchelintsev himself enters the Duma Expert Council, but no one collected it. The only thing the lawyer would consider reasonable is to increase fines: now for insulting religious feelings and desecration of cult items, a fine of 500 to 1000 rubles is supposed to be a fine (Article 5.26 of the Code of Administrative Offenses) - this is not serious, the expert agreed.

Mufti of Moscow Albert Krganov supports power in an effort to respond to various “tense situations”. “There is a real moral degradation in society, it excites Muslims - their feelings must be respected.” Moreover, otherwise the opposition will lure believers to rallies. However, he is also dissatisfied with the revelry of the anti -extremist campaign, the victims of which are often Muslims, and the existing law enforcement practice. “ Who? Teachers in schools? Some physical education teacher writes an examination that the book, which has been in Muslims for thousands of years, cannot be applied. If the new law is applied like this, then, of course, we will have very big problems, ”Mufti concluded.

The assistant to the Ryakhovsky pastor Konstantin Bendas saw in the creation of a new bill an attempt to “drag” the formulation of the preamble of the Law “On Freedom of Conscience” into federal legislation. In the preamble, it is listed in the “inalienable part of the historical heritage of the peoples of Russia” (very confused, I must say), from where, in fact, an incorrect division went into “traditional” and “non -traditional”, which is not in the law itself. Bendas considers it unacceptable to transfer discriminating formulations to federal legislation.

Lyudmila Alekseeva worries A dangerous trend in the latest decisions of the Duma. The laws adopted by her, on the one hand, are extremely sloppy written, and differently are unfulfilled. “Well, how can a simple person in our country pay a fine of 300 thousand rubles? - asked the human rights activist. “Will he pay him all his life?” Why adopt laws that cannot be fulfilled? "

The lawyer Henry Reznik was brief and expressive: “The law is depressing,” he cried with bass. - The one who prepared this law is legally insane. This is a discrimination of legislative activity. The law is subject to withdrawal from further discussion, this is a shameful act for the legislator. ”

At the request of the audience, he recalled the criminal Code of Tsarist Russia. In 1906, Nikolayiy canceled all articles punishing for "blasphemy." There are only two left: sanctions for the obstruction of worship (hard labor) - but with relief, if the action is committed "in order" or "in a drunken form." And sanctions for the obstruction of the priest to conduct a worship - from two to eight months of prison.

We are like savages, he said, who grab onto the weapon when the conflict occurs. "I affirm: there is no mass attack on the feelings of believers." "Do you have statistics, Father Vsevolod?" - the lawyer turned to Archpriest Vsevolod Chaplin. There was no statistics, but there was a “persecution”, he stood firmly on his priest.

The Public Chamber, summing up all the considerations, will draw up a final verdict regarding the bill. But are there a lot of hope that the Duma will listen to the voice of social activists?

“I cannot answer this question,” said Nikolai Svanidze. - The position of the public pralata is quite obvious, and we, of course, will express it. The bill is terrible, it brings up everything that can be kindled. Not to mention the fact that legally it is absolutely illiterate. So you need to act. You can’t help but try to stop it - let's try. ”