Prohibited wherever not permitted

The Federation Council took up fixing the places of protest

Another example of a reflex chain to ban everything and everything on the part of the authorities was the meeting of the “Interim Commission of the Federation Council for the Protection of State Sovereignty and Prevention of Interference in the Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation”, which gathered after protests in Moscow and St. "their" candidates.

At this meeting, Senator Lyudmila Bokova (co-author of the “Dima Yakovlev law” and the “Klishas law”) proposed the development of a law that would establish places in every city where political actions could be held, prohibiting them from being held anywhere else. Like, this bill "would not violate the right to peaceful rallies, enshrined in the Constitution, but would not allow violating the rights of other citizens who take children to kindergartens and schools."

Her colleague and head of the said commission, Andrey Klimov, promised that the Federation Council would develop a law “on the precise fixation of places where political events can be held – and where they cannot be held under any circumstances,” and for some reason referred to the experience of Brussels, where to protest it is possible “only in certain spaces, and exit beyond them is blocked” ( see the explanation on this matter by Novaya’s own correspondent Alexander Mineev on the same page. - Ed. ).

This landmark proposal turns the current legislative structure on its head.

Article 8 of the Federal Law 54-FZ "On meetings, rallies, demonstrations, marches and pickets" establishes the opposite principle: people can gather wherever it is not prohibited.

We quote: “A public event can be held in any places suitable for the purposes of this event, if its holding does not create a threat of collapse of buildings and structures or other threat to the safety of participants in this public event. The conditions for prohibiting or restricting the holding of a public event in certain places may be specified by federal laws.”

There is such a specification: it is forbidden to hold public events in areas directly adjacent to hazardous production facilities, on overpasses, railways, oil, gas and product pipelines, high-voltage power lines. And also - in the territories directly adjacent to the residences of the President of the Russian Federation, to the buildings occupied by the courts, to the territories and buildings of institutions executing punishment in the form of deprivation of liberty. And in the border zone.

Regions have been given the right to introduce by law their own "restricted zones" for public actions - if "holding public events in these places may lead to disruption of the functioning of life support facilities, transport or social infrastructure, communications, interfere with the movement of pedestrians and (or) vehicles, or citizens' access to residential premises or objects of transport or social infrastructure”.

Norma, we note, is rather crafty - for example, in St. Petersburg, on this basis, it was forbidden to hold public actions on Nevsky Prospekt and St. Isaac's Square. And also - at a distance of less than 100 meters from the entrance to metro stations, train stations and airports and at a distance of less than 50 meters from the entrance to buildings occupied by the state authorities of St. Petersburg, educational institutions and healthcare institutions. As a result, it is forbidden to hold rallies both on Palace Square, which for many years was a place for public actions, and on Academician Sakharov Square - since the entrance to St. does not work…

Nevertheless, with all these restrictions, all other spaces are formally free for holding public actions. And although the authorities most often, under any pretext, try to refuse to hold rallies there, and especially marches, they each time have to invent some reasons that can theoretically be challenged in court.

If Bokova and Klimov's proposal is accepted, officials won't even have to invent anything.

Because the opposite principle will apply: it will be possible to gather only where it is allowed.

That is, only in Hyde Parks, which are still provided for by law today: these are special places for public events where you can gather without agreement. At the same time, places for Hyde Parks in each region are determined not even by a regional law, but by officials. And they do it, of course, creating maximum inconvenience for citizens.

So, in St. Petersburg for several years, the only Hyde Park in the city center was the Field of Mars - but in 2017, Governor Georgy Poltavchenko excluded it from the list based on the alleged demands of some "public organizations" (which no one saw). And all the other hyde parks are on the outskirts. It took a year and a half for a new Hyde Park to appear at least relatively close to the center - on Lenin Square near the Finland Station. But even there, from time to time, they do not allow rallies to be held for absurd reasons: either some “cultural events” interfere, or allegedly “beautification work is underway” ...

Bokova-Klimov's initiative is also seen as unconstitutional: according to Article 55 of the Constitution, the rights of citizens can be restricted “only to the extent necessary to protect the foundations of the constitutional order, morality, health, rights and legitimate interests of others, to ensure the defense of the country and state security."

Nevertheless, the fact that, if necessary, this initiative can be adopted, as they say, in a day in three readings, is beyond doubt.

As well as the fact that after the inevitable changes, all the repressive and prohibitive laws of recent years will have to be canceled in one "package".