The government criticized the new draft Code of Administrative Offenses

The Government of the Russian Federation criticized the draft of a new general part of the Code of Administrative Offenses . The eight-page review was published on June 10 on the department's website. The government "conceptually supports the bill," the document says, but the document "requires further development" at its current stage.

In particular, the government stressed that the text of the draft general part "excluded the task of protecting the individual, which in the current version of the Code of Administrative Offenses of the Russian Federation is of priority importance."

In addition, the government criticized the use in the project of evaluative concepts that are not defined in Russian law, such as “harmful consequences”, “significant harmful consequences”, “significant harm”. “It is necessary to take into account the repeatedly expressed position of the Constitutional Court <...> on the need for formal certainty, clarity, unambiguity of legal norms and their consistency in the system of current legal regulation; legal provisions that do not meet the specified criteria give rise to contradictory judicial practice, create the possibility of their ambiguous interpretation and arbitrary application, ”the authors of the review emphasize.

In this regard, they proposed to exclude from the text of the draft one of the key points on the division of offenses into “less significant”, “significant” and “gross”, leaving only the latter.

In a number of cases, the reviewers also criticized the lack of a sufficient basis for specific changes. This concerns, in particular, the proposed introduction of new types of administrative punishments into the administrative code, including correctional labor and an administrative ban on attending public events. According to the government, the draft law thus restricts, among other things, the right of citizens to assemble peacefully and without weapons, guaranteed by Article 31 of the Constitution.

In addition, the government has criticized the bill's proposed significant increase in maximum fines. “The amounts of administrative fines established by this article [Article 4.7 - OVD-Info], which are many times higher than the minimum amount of a criminal fine, entail a violation of the relationship between criminal and administrative responsibility, which is inconsistent with the principles of proportionality and fairness in sentencing for non-dangerous administrative offenses and for socially dangerous crimes” , says the review.

At the same time, the authors of the document emphasize, the legislators propose to prohibit imposing fines below the lower limit, which contradicts the position of the Constitutional Court.

The draft of the new general part of the Code of Administrative Offenses was submitted to the State Duma in January 2015, and has not yet been considered in the first reading. An independent examination revealed a large number of controversial points in it.