Wednesday, January 8, 2020

15 Ways Moscow Used Laws to Restrict Russian Rights over the Last Decade


Paul Goble

            Staunton, January 6 – Over the last decade, Denis Dmitriyev of the Meduza news agency reports, the Russian government not only violated its own laws and constitution to repress the population but also adopted new laws or modified old ones to do the same thing. He provides a list, admittedly incomplete from which this list of 15 is excerpted, of such legislation.

            Because many believe that a law-based state protects the population from abuse, it is important to remember the ways in which the Putin regime like other dictatorships has misused laws to take away the rights of those living within the current borders of the Russian Federation (meduza.io/feature/2020/01/06/za-10-let-v-rossii-radikalno-uzhestochili-zakony-spisok).

            They include:

1.      Prohibiting Americans from adopting children from Russia;

2.      Making slander a criminal and not just administrative offense;

3.      Making any references to Nazism potentially a criminal offense;

4.      Making failure to report a crime a crime;

5.      Making calls for separatism a crime;

6.      Making propaganda about gays an administrative offense;

7.      Making offending religious feelings a criminal offense.

8.      Restricting the rights of citizens to hold meetings;

9.      Restricting those convicted of crimes from being elected to positions of authority;

10.  Requiring Russians report on second citizenship or foreign residence permits;

11.  Establishing the category of undesirable organizations and threatening participation with criminal charges and the groups with closure;

12.  Establishing the category “foreign agent” and requiring that those, including media outlets, identified as such identify themselves in all their actions or face serious fines or even closure;

13.  Restricting foreign ownership in Russian publications to no more than 20 percent;

14.  Creating a ramified system to block Internet resources; and

15.  Making any show of lack of respect to the powers that be an administrative violation subject to fines of up to 100,000 rubles (1600 US dollars).

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