BBC: Amendments to the "law against FBK" do not cancel its retroactive effect

The amendments introduced by Duma deputy Pavel Krasheninnikov and Senator Andrei Klishas to the second reading of the "law against FBK ", which prohibits people involved in the activities of an extremist or terrorist organization from participating in elections, do not cancel its retroactive effect. This is reported by the BBC Russian Service, which has reviewed the text of the amendments.

On May 21, Klishas stated that, in accordance with the amendments, the law will not apply to those who helped extremist organizations before they were recognized as such, as well as to those who provided them with assistance “in carrying out activities that do not fall under the characteristics of extremism or terrorism.”

However, as the BBC writes, the amendments proposed by Klishas and Krasheninnikov “retained all the provisions that propose limiting the passive electoral rights of those who collaborated with ‘extremists’ even before the court’s decision on the organization’s status.”

The senator assures that the ban will not apply to Russians who helped an organization recognized as extremist when its "activities did not fall under such characteristics." However, this does not mean that the ban on elections will not affect those who left the organization before the court recognized it as extremist. The court can establish when signs of extremism appeared in the organization's activities, and this is the moment from which the countdown will begin, according to Klishas.

The BBC draws attention to the fact that in comments distributed by Klishas’ press service, he emphasizes that participation in the activities of an extremist organization is an ongoing crime, and “illegal actions could have begun to be committed long before the moment when the court’s verdict [on recognizing the organization as extremist] was issued.”

• The amendments proposed by Klishas and Krasheninnikov also extend the law's scope to elections at all levels. The original version of the bill proposed banning employees of organizations recognized as extremist from participating only in State Duma elections.
• The text of the amendments to the second reading of the bill has not yet been published on the State Duma website. The voting date has not yet been set either.