When the coronavirus goes away: Vladimir Putin is about to sign a bill that will significantly reduce the places where rallies can be held

Disguised as “foreign agents”

At the end of November, the bill “On amendments to certain legislative acts of the Russian Federation (in terms of improving the regulation of the status of a foreign agent)” was adopted in the third reading by the State Duma and approved by the Federation Council. Now it is signed by Vladimir Putin.

As we previously wrote , the bill not only systematizes and expands the prohibitions against “foreign agents”, but introduces a number of restrictions - for everyone - on the organization of rallies.

It will be prohibited to hold rallies near government buildings and critical infrastructure, as well as at train stations, schools, universities and hospitals, playgrounds and religious sites. Subjects of the Russian Federation are also given the freedom to supplement this list, “if this is due to the historical, cultural, and other objective characteristics of the subject.”

The bans do not apply to pickets. The bill prohibits rallies in the above-mentioned places and makes it extremely difficult to hold demonstrations: it is almost impossible to lay out a procession route through a modern city without touching any of the prohibited areas. It remains unclear how the unfenced area adjacent to a particular property will be determined.

against the bill In the State Duma, the Communist Party faction voted . State Duma deputy, Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation Sergei Obukhov told OVD-Info that his party’s main objection to the bill was that one bill mixed measures related to “foreign agents” and the procedure for organizing rallies. The Communist Party has not received any explanation as to how these are connected to each other.

“In essence, this is a taboo for holding mass actions in public places. There remains a very narrow list of places where it can be held. Places used by authorities for their events are also subject to restrictions. It’s even interesting how they will come out of this. They will be forced to follow some procedure. Any authoritarian regime is still a bureaucracy,” says Obukhov.

Sergei Morev, deputy chairman of the Moscow organization of the Yabloko party, does not think that the new law will change the situation much, especially for the organization of pro-government mass events.

“Since the beginning of Covid, there has been a de facto ban on even single pickets. Only events organized by the authorities are allowed. They call them not rallies, but concerts. We celebrate Crimea and referendums under the guise of concerts. Since 2020, I have personally been suing the mayor of Moscow to cancel the decree banning any public events. The first appeal court, that is, the third instance, recognized the mayor’s actions as legitimate: that concerts can be held, but rallies cannot be held. Based on this, I do not see any additional global restrictions,” comments Morev.

Territory is not allowed

Bans on holding public rallies near various buildings were widespread in different regions of Russia in the 2010s. OVD-Info previously maintained an online map “Territory is prohibited” , which showed where in which city it was possible to hold a picket or rally. For example, the center of Nizhny Novgorod on this map due to the ban on gathering, among other things, near religious buildings, medical institutions, buildings occupied by “communication organizations”, bakeries, transport and engineering infrastructure, power plants, boiler houses and construction sites, not to mention the local The Kremlin actually turned into one big red spot. Throughout the 2010s, human rights activists managed to fight these bans.

“The federal legislator has again returned to a long-standing big debate, on which there are two decisions of the Constitutional Court (CC), a decision of the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR). The Constitutional Court in 2019 and 2020 stated that legislators cannot pass such broad bans. There is some practice on this topic from already liquidated regional constitutional courts. Now that Russia has left the Council of Europe, we are seeing a powerful setback. Lawmakers decided to consolidate the bans at the federal level. In addition to the fact that this is an indicative gesture regarding the concessions that the authorities made with an eye on the ECHR, it is also a slap in the direction of the Constitutional Court. Perhaps the spitting was unconscious,” notes OVD-Info analyst Denis Shedov.

In 2014, St. Petersburg lawyers appealed to the Constitutional Court, trying to challenge regional restrictions on street protests. The Constitutional Court sided with the authorities of the northern capital.

In 2017, the ECHR issued a decision in the case “Lashmankin v. Russia,” where it criticized, in particular, the federal ban on rallies near courts. In 2019, the ECHR issued a decision in the case “Kablis v. Russia”, where there was criticism of regional bans.

After the decisions of the ECHR there were decisions of the Constitutional Court. Human rights organizations, human rights commissioners, members of the Human Rights Council, and the Yabloko party appealed to regional authorities, insisting on changing the legislation.

“In 2019-20, the prosecutor’s office monitored this story and willingly scolded the regional authorities. But even after the decisions of the Constitutional Court, some regions did their best: they made multi-thousand lists of places where protests were prohibited. Then coronavirus restrictions appeared, which turned out to be much more effective. Perhaps the authorities are now preparing a cushion for themselves to lift coronavirus restrictions. They may need a list of places where protests are strictly prohibited,” Shedov suggests.

Editorial office OVD-Info