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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