“Angry the population and push them into the streets!”: Russia is again promised a commune-Maidan

State Duma deputies supported a bill tightening the conditions for holding mass events and prohibiting their financing from abroad. The corresponding document was adopted in the first reading, a PolitNavigator correspondent reports.

“If there is clear and unambiguous information that as a result of an emergency, a terrorist act, or in the presence of a real threat of their occurrence, the safety of participants cannot be ensured, the authorized body is obliged to immediately propose to the organizer to change the place and time of the event.

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If these specified circumstances were identified the day before or on the day of a public event, immediately notify the organizer of the impossibility of holding it, offer to change the date, and, if necessary, the place or time by submitting a new notification,” said deputy Dmitry Vyatkin, who presented the bill.

The document also proposes obliging journalists covering rallies and protests to wear insignia:

“It is proposed to clearly separate the functions and work of the organizers and participants of the mass event, and the fulfillment of their professional duty by journalists. In this regard, the current norm is being clarified that every journalist covering a mass event is required to have the appropriate sign...

This is not necessarily something wearable, it can be an item of clothing, a headdress, or other distinctive features that will allow law enforcement agencies and other participants in a public mass event to clearly see and distinguish journalists from the crowd.”

In addition, the bill prohibits any financing of public events from abroad:

“We understand perfectly well that the processes that are taking place in a number of countries, including our closest neighbors, are directly related to the facts of foreign interference in street protest activities and public activity. Without any doubt, this loophole for penetration into our internal political space through the financing of public political activities must be closed,” the parliamentarian said.

However, the parliamentary opposition did not like the innovations. The provisions of the bill are too vague and allow the authorities to ban any events, deputy Denis Parfenov from the Communist Party of the Russian Federation said from the podium:

“According to current federal legislation, a nationwide emergency can be declared if 500 people are injured or killed. Unfortunately, many more people have already died from Covid, and we can potentially consider that there is a threat of an emergency throughout the entire country. Does this mean that, in accordance with the standards you propose, all authorities have a very convenient opportunity to refuse to hold events under this pretext?” - asked the communist.

To this, Vyatkin replied that Russia already has a high-alert regime, which allows the authorities to introduce restrictions on holding mass events.

Deputy Oleg Shein from A Just Russia also asked the author how to evaluate the fact that the ruling party United Russia receives money from sources established abroad:

“In 18, the United Russia party received eight million rubles from the Severstal Management company, whose founder was a Cyprus offshore company. Does this mean that United Russia receives foreign funding, and all of you should be arrested?” - Shein said.

“You probably have a sense of humor, but I didn’t appreciate it. Everything that concerns the financial issues of political parties, which are not regulated either by the law to which we propose to amend, or by our bill, is subject to regulation by another law on political parties. In cases where transfers are received from any political party - yours, our colleagues, including United Russia. And if it is revealed that transfers should not be made there, if they contradict the current law, these funds are returned, and that’s how everyone acts. Including you. As for the arrest, you answer this question for yourself,” Vyatkin said.

Communist Parfenov threatened that the restrictions proposed by the law will only worsen the position of the authorities:

“We understand perfectly well that for the current Russian government, the only significant threat that this government is even more or less afraid of is a mass street protest. It is precisely in order to prevent this protest, to put obstacles in place, that this initiative is being introduced. Obviously, it will not help stop the growing wave of protests, because it has deep socio-economic reasons. But, such laws can anger the population and push them into the streets without any permits,” the communist threatened.