Extremely and “on the knee”

In Russia, even the state of emergency is introduced in a hybrid mode

The state of emergency can be defined as a temporary, if there are grounds for this, suspension of the operation of ordinary laws, restriction of the rights and freedoms of citizens for the purpose of their general security. The regime that is now being introduced in Moscow and the regions is, in fact, the state of emergency (PE), the possibility of which is provided for by the Federal Law of December 21, 1994 No. 68-FZ “On the protection of the population and territories from natural and man-made emergencies” (ChS) and the Federal Constitutional Law of May 30, 2001 No. 3 FKZ “On the state of emergency” (however, the Kremlin, through Dmitry Peskov, said on March 26 that there were no grounds for introducing a state of emergency yet).

Article 1 of the Federal Law-68 defines an emergency situation under which a pandemic falls, it is: “the situation in a certain territory that has developed as a result of ... a dangerous natural phenomenon ... a natural or other disaster that may or have caused human casualties, damage to people's health ... significant material losses and violation of living conditions. “Emergency prevention,” it says further, “is a set of measures ... aimed at minimizing the risk of emergencies as much as possible, as well as preserving people's health ...”

In accordance with Art. 8 FZ-68 (as in accordance with FKZ-3), it is the president who, by his decision, after consultations with the Security Council of the Russian Federation, introduces a state of emergency, and the decree on this is immediately submitted for approval to the Federation Council (Article 4 FKZ-3). Putin's decree of March 25, referring to the more general art. 80 of the Constitution instead of these laws, is rather a form of evasion from the introduction of a state of emergency and in fact shifts the adoption of such decisions to the heads of the subjects of the Federation (which they do, but in discord). The decree was clearly written in a hurry and is not consistent with other laws in the field of other branches of law.

This is partly excusable by the emergency regime, but the fact remains that the highest authorities did not have ready-made developments for such a situation.

On March 26, it was reported that the government, which had submitted the relevant bill to the State Duma, announced its intention to obtain the right to introduce an emergency regime (this document is not currently available in the database of the Duma's bills). Such a right is superfluous, it already exists, although not with the government, but with the president - that is, the bill, if it is not withdrawn, is rather also aimed at blurring responsibility.

In the meantime, the Duma is preparing a law on penalties for violating the quarantine (despite the fact that it has not yet been determined what quarantine is in the context of this epidemic). Such measures are necessary, but the deputies continue to surprise with ignorance, suggesting that in cases of “intentional infection with the coronavirus”, those responsible for terrorism should be punished (apparently, this is still not about direct intent, but indirect intent covers the purpose for which certain actions are committed).

The emergency severely manifests a situation that has long been established in the country: the fearfulness of officials, largely their irresponsibility and inadequate (largely carried out through parallel and unofficial channels) management.

The authorities are not ready to respond to those challenges that were not created by themselves, and it is no coincidence that the last adjustments to the Federal Law-68 of 1994 were made on July 3, 2019 - they were sharpened to suppress mass demonstrations in Moscow.

In the context of a truly nationwide misfortune, one does not want to criticize the authorities, especially since most other states also turned out to be unprepared for the challenge of a pandemic that has been forgotten by mankind. On the contrary, it is necessary to enter into the position of Vladimir Putin, who is accustomed to the complex “Byzantine” system of management based on innuendo and hints, not so much about institutions as about specific characters. In an emergency, this system cannot work, it must be resolutely discarded. But will it be possible to quickly clean the levers of a conventional control system from rust?