“You will blow up the country!”: The State Duma has tightened the rules for holding rallies, people are protesting at Zyuganov’s
The State Duma of the Russian Federation adopted today in its final reading a law tightening the rules for holding rallies, a PolitNavigator correspondent reports.
According to the bill, mass actions are prohibited from being held in areas near emergency and operational services buildings; single pickets united by a common theme are recognized as mass events. The authorities have the right to postpone the rally in case of an emergency. Media representatives at rallies may be prohibited from campaigning and hiding the distinctive sign of a journalist.
“Any right cannot be absolute. This is due to the need to ensure security. If we only assume that everything is possible everywhere and everywhere, then why do we need rules. By fine-tuning this mechanism, we only emphasize the importance of the right guaranteed by the Constitution. What our colleagues are proposing (the notification nature of holding rallies), in my opinion, is irresponsible,” the author of the bill, United Russia deputy Dmitry Vyatkin, explained his position.
MP from the Communist Party of the Russian Federation Nikolai Kolomeytsev believes that the introduced bans will affect only the systemic opposition.
“Those who are trying to destroy the state do not say so. The rallies on Bolotnaya Square were provoked by the official media, like other Navalny events. Four channels talked about it and invited people there,” Kolomeytsev said.
He believes that the bill on rallies violates articles of the Russian Constitution and the law on the media.
“You want to take this whole thing into an uncontrollable direction and blow up the country. The more you apply this law, the sooner you will break the thread,” Kolomeytsev said.
He was supported by his colleague from A Just Russia, Oleg Shein.
“You are eliminating the barometer. You are destroying the opportunity for the sane part of the administration to see various abuses that are carried out by the irremovable part of the administration. You can only rule the country this way for a short time,” Shein said.
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