Amendments to Art. 20.3 of the Administrative Code adopted by the State Duma

The State Duma adopted a bill specifying the conditions for prosecution for displaying prohibited symbols.

On February 18, 2020, the State Duma of the Russian Federation adopted the draft law "On Amendments to Article 20.3 of the Code of Administrative Offenses of the Russian Federation", changing the text of Art. 20.3 of the Code of Administrative Offenses (propaganda or public demonstration of Nazi symbols or symbols of extremist organizations).

This bill was submitted to parliament in December 2018 by a group of deputies led by Elena Yampolskaya at the initiative of the All-Russian Popular Front (ONF). On December 11, 2019, it was adopted in the first reading, and on February 12, 2020, in the second.

According to the text of the bill adopted in the second reading , the disposition and sanctions under Art. 20.3 of the Code of Administrative Offenses remain unchanged, only a note is provided that the provisions of the article " do not apply to cases of using Nazi paraphernalia or symbols, or paraphernalia or symbols confusingly similar to Nazi paraphernalia or symbols, or paraphernalia or symbols of extremist organizations in which negative attitude towards the ideology of Nazism and extremism and there are no signs of propaganda or justification of Nazi and extremist ideology ."

The law “On Amendments to Article 6 of the Federal Law “On Perpetuating the Victory of the Soviet People in the Great Patriotic War of 1941-1945” and Article 1 of the Federal Law “On Counteracting Extremist Activity,” which was part of the same package, was signed by the President in December 2019 .

It should be noted that the draft of the new Code of Administrative Offenses, developed by the Ministry of Justice and published at the end of January, provides for changes in the disposition and sanctions of the article on prohibited symbols, we wrote about this here .

In general, we welcome the abolition of the total ban on displaying prohibited symbols, but it is not entirely clear to us how it is proposed to establish whether a “negative attitude” towards Nazi ideology is formed in this or that case. We are afraid that this clause will not cover all cases of displaying prohibited symbols without the purpose of propagating the relevant ideology. In order to prevent unlawful persecution, we proposed that federal laws and Art. 20.3 of the Code of Administrative Offenses, which punishes only the demonstration of prohibited symbols aimed at such propaganda.

Sources

• Canceled administrative responsibility for the demonstration of Nazi symbols // State Duma of the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation. February 18, 2020
• Draft Law No. 606698-7 "On Amendments to Article 20.3 of the Code of Administrative Offenses of the Russian Federation" // CREATION GAS "Lawmaking". February 12, 2020