Translated material
The opposition in Cheboksary protests against the draft regional law on rallies
Opposition parties in Chuvashia took to public stops in Cheboksary on Friday to tell residents of the republic what awaits them if the United Russia faction votes for a new law on rallies at the next session of the region’s State Council.
The lawyer of the Chuvash branch of the A Just Russia party, Igor Mikhailov, told the Interfax-Povolzhye agency that at all central public transport stops in Cheboksary, starting from the Railway Station and ending with the Fashion House, which is about 20 stops, representatives of the Socialist-Revolutionaries and the Liberal Democratic Party are standing and handing out leaflets for residents of the republic.
“They contain an article explaining to people that this bill limits their rights to hold public events. In the future, we plan to introduce an alternative bill on rallies to parliament,” he noted.
According to the agency's interlocutor, Parnas and Yabloko also came to protest events and are waiting for the Communist Party of the Russian Federation.
As the leader of the Chuvash LDPR, Andrei Kulagin, told the agency, the goal of the action is to protect the rights of the opposition and residents of the republic, to “shake them up.”
“We want the deputies of the State Council of Chuvashia to think that such a bill should not exist. And to prepare the residents of the republic for the upcoming referendum. If the bill is adopted in this form, we plan to initiate a referendum,” he noted.
The leader of the Chuvash communists, Dmitry Evseev, told the agency that in the near future his people will join the rest of the opposition.
Earlier, the human rights organization "Shield and Sword" stated that the regional bill on rallies, which the State Council of Chuvashia Committee on State Building, Local Self-Government, Regulations and Deputy Ethics plans to submit to the State Council of the Republic, violates the right of citizens to freedom of assembly.
In a statement, Chuvash human rights activists noted that the document describes the procedure for using specially designated places for holding mass actions, prohibited territories, as well as norms for the maximum occupancy of territories.
In particular, according to human rights activists, places where public events are prohibited include train stations, shopping and entertainment complexes (centers), markets, children's and educational institutions, cultural, medical, fitness and sports organizations, and related separate territories, objects and structures to them.
Public roads, sidewalks, public transport stops, children's and sports grounds, religious buildings and structures, other places and objects specifically intended for worship, prayer and religious meetings, religious veneration (pilgrimage), are also prohibited from holding mass actions. as well as territories adjacent to closer than 50 meters to the specified objects, as well as to residential buildings, buildings occupied by government agencies of Chuvashia, local governments, state and municipal institutions.
“If the draft law in its current form is submitted for consideration to a session of the State Council of Chuvashia, where deputies accept it without changes, then the implementation of the citizens’ right to freedom of assembly in the territory of our region will become practically impossible,” the statement said.
According to human rights activists, the bill needs serious work, which consists in easing the requirements for places suitable for holding public events.
If the bill is adopted in the current version, the human rights organization undertakes to appeal its adoption in court as inconsistent with the Constitution of Chuvashia and the Constitution of Russia.