Of all the evils, the Duma chose a geisha – Newspaper Kommersant No. 218 (7419) of 11/24/2022
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The State Duma on Wednesday approved in the second reading a package of bills on a complete ban on propaganda of non-traditional sexual relations. Some deputies proposed to supplement the initiatives with new restrictions. Thus, the Social Revolutionary Yana Lantratova wanted to ban computer games with LGBT characters, and the communist Nina Ostanina wanted to promote the ideology of childlessness. But in the end, these ideas were not taken into account, as well as the proposal of Mrs. Ostanina and the Socialist-Revolutionary Nikolai Burlyaev to introduce criminal liability for repeated violation of prohibitions.
The bills developed on the platform of the Duma Committee on Information Policy were submitted to the chamber on October 20 by a group of 400 deputies headed by Speaker Vyacheslav Volodin and adopted on first reading 27th October.
The first draft introduces changes to five laws: “On information, information technologies and information protection”, “On the media”, “On the protection of children from information harmful to their health and development”, “On advertising” and “On state support for cinematography”.
- In the list of previously prohibited information (propaganda of war, the cult of violence and cruelty, inciting hatred and enmity, public calls for terrorism and extremism, etc.), the authors proposed to include information that promotes non-traditional sexual relations and pedophilia.
- And among minors, not only propaganda of such relations (as it is now), but also their demonstration will be prohibited.
Second bill introduces administrative liability for the promotion of non-traditional sexual relations among persons of any age, and propaganda among minors will become an aggravating circumstance.
- Fines for citizens will range from 50 thousand to 400 thousand rubles. (now from 4 thousand to 100 thousand rubles), for officials – up to 800 thousand, for legal entities – up to 5 million rubles. (the maximum fine threatens for propaganda in the media and the Internet).
- Citizens will pay from 50,000 to 200,000 rubles for the dissemination of information among minors that demonstrates non-traditional sexual relations or that can make them want to change their sex (new article 6.21.2 of the Code of Administrative Offenses), citizens will pay from 50 thousand to 200 thousand rubles, legal entities – up to 4 million rubles.
- And the maximum fines are introduced for promoting pedophilia (Article 6.21.1): for citizens – from 200 thousand to 800 thousand rubles, for legal entities – up to 10 million rubles.
Chairman of the Committee on Information Policy Alexander Khinshtein (United Russia), presenting the document, noted that it is “one of the most significant and important bills of this convocation” and “almost all deputies of the State Duma” put their signatures under it. He also said that amendments are being introduced for the second reading on the obligation of owners of social networks and Roskomnadzor to monitor the Internet in search of propaganda for non-traditional sexual relations. Resources that distribute such information will be blocked. The list of prohibited information is also expanding, to which propaganda of gender reassignment has also been added.
The deputies had clarifying questions for the authors. So, Maria Prusakova (KPRF) was interested in whether bloggers would be held responsible if “bots start sending rainbow flags in the comments” to them. Mr. Khinshtein reassured his colleague by explaining that bloggers are not owners of their pages on social networks, but “tenants”.
Mikhail Matveev (KPRF) asked whether “coming-outs” of famous people would be punishable. The head of the information policy committee replied that “decisions will be made in each specific case.”
Anatoly Wasserman (“A Just Russia – For Truth”) suggested writing the words “sex change” in quotation marks, because in fact it is “not a sex change, but in fact the deprivation of a person’s gender.” Alexander Khinshtein objected to this that, according to the results of the linguistic expertise of the legal department of the State Duma, there was no need to quote these words.
Yana Lantratova (SRZP) recalled her amendment, which provides for a ban on computer games “showing gays, lesbians, transgender people.” This proposal caused a wide resonance earlier, the committee discussed it in detail at a meeting on Monday and decided to reject it. Then Mr. Khinshtein explained that the wording proposed by the authors of the project already covers video games. At the same time, he agreed that computer games need separate regulation, but first it is necessary to define this essence in the law. Mrs. Lantratova did not forget this remark and already at the plenary session she invited everyone who wanted to join her in the development of the relevant bill.
Finally, the head of the committee on family, women and children, Nina Ostanina (KPRF), proposed that the denial of family values, “including the ideology of childlessness,” be classified as prohibited information. “The committee discussed this topic, there really is a so-called childfree ideology. But, unfortunately, we did not find those clear formulations that can fulfill the tasks set,” Alexander Khinshtein admitted. “It is difficult to understand without detailing where the right to have children ends when a person wants, and where the very ideology of childlessness begins.”
In addition, the legislation does not establish what “family values” are, which means that a ban on their denial cannot be introduced, the head of the committee added.
As a result, 392 deputies voted for the adoption of the bill in the second reading, there were no votes against or abstentions.
The Duma did not listen to the opinion of Mrs. Ostanina in terms of toughening the punishment for LGBT propaganda. Kommunist, together with Nikolai Burlyaev (SRZP), insisted that criminal liability should follow for repeated violation of the bans, and submitted this amendment to a separate vote. However, the first deputy chairman of the committee on legislation, Irina Pankina (ER), explained that in order to amend the Criminal Code, feedback from the government and the Supreme Court must be received. In addition, “The Criminal Code is the only code that deprives a person of the most precious thing – freedom,” Ms. Pankina emphasized: “And it seems to us that the standards of responsibility that are provided for in the bill are sufficient at the moment.”
As a result, the deputies did not support the amendment to the Criminal Code, and in general, the bill on amendments to the Code of Administrative Offenses in the second reading was approved by 374 votes. The third reading of both bills will take place on Thursday.
Deputies found new extremists
On Wednesday, the State Duma held a regular meeting of the commission to investigate the facts of interference of foreign states in the internal affairs of Russia. Its chairman, head of the State Duma security committee Vasily Piskarev (United Russia) announced the completion of an investigation into 30 foreign non-governmental organizations and other structures from 16 unfriendly countries. “Earlier, these structures specialized in provoking unrest and separatism in Russia, interfering in elections and promoting drugs, involving teenagers in destructive activities, using various technologies to discredit Russia, and since February of this year, they have been actively involved in anti-Russian activities in the context of a special military operation in Ukraine,” Mr. Piskarev explained. This black list includes, in particular, Svoboda Alliance (Australia), Russian America for Democracy in Russia (USA), the Ark project (which has representatives in more than 40 countries), Danish Friends of Democratic Russia (Denmark) , Eurasian Harm Reduction Association (Lithuania), RUHelp – Russians against the war association (Luxembourg), Free Russia NL community (Netherlands), Human Rights House foundation (Norway), Demokrati-Ja movement (Germany), Forum Free Russia” (Latvia). Based on the results of the investigation, the commission proposed to recognize their activities in Russia as undesirable, and to declare some organizations as extremist.
The deputies also sent an appeal to the Prosecutor General’s Office with a request to recognize it as extremist and ban the publication of DOXA. “On its resources, there are instructions on setting fire to Russian military registration and enlistment offices, the police, making Molotov cocktails, and seizing universities,” Mr. Piskarev said. Recall that in January 2021, the DOXA website published a video in which four editors of the publication spoke about the illegality of deductions from students and schoolchildren who participated in actions in support of opposition leader Alexei Navalny. A criminal case was initiated against the editors for involving minors in dangerous activities (Article 151.2 of the Criminal Code), and in April 2022 they were all sentenced to two years of corrective labor.
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