Because of foreign agents, the State Duma argued about McCarthyism
The State Duma of the Russian Federation adopted today the final third reading on foreign agents, a PolitNavigator correspondent reports.
5 deputies voted against. One of them, communist Alexei Kurinny, said that the law would plunge Russia into the days of McCarthyism.
“The international situation is not a sufficient basis for adopting this bill. The attempt today to draw a clear line “patriot is not a patriot” is absolutely untenable. We were told: we don’t need anything specific, the more vague the better. Therefore, everything, starting with the definition of a foreign agent, is left to law enforcement officials. The issue of protecting rights is not regulated by this law,” Kurinny said.
According to him, there is an attempt to introduce “the US experience of the 50s in the fight against communists,” which was practiced during the height of McCarthyism.
Deputy Shkhagoshev Adalbi told how the draft law was prepared.
“We conducted a dialogue and persuaded potential foreign agents. I personally called individual media outlets dozens of times. They refused to sit down at the negotiating table,” Shkhagoshev said.
The mention of McCarthyism outraged Speaker Vyacheslav Volodin.
“If we want to compare the times of McCarthyism and the proposed solution, then this is the most democratic, most liberal solution. During the McCarthy era, more than 300 people from the State Department were fired for their beliefs, leading Hollywood directors were given serious sentences, and Charlie Chaplin was expelled.
As a result, to this day, neither the communist nor the labor parties in the United States can participate in elections. Every country must defend itself if it thinks about its future. Anyone who sings from someone else’s voice must understand that he is a foreign agent,” Volodin said.
In his opinion, the new law will protect opposition parties from being dissolved in the future.
McCarthyism is a social movement in the United States that existed from the late 1940s to 1957. It was accompanied by an exacerbation of anti-communist sentiments and political repression against “anti-American” citizens.
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