The government commission rejected amendments to tighten the rules for terminating Russian citizenship

The Russian Government Commission on Legislative Activities on Monday approved regular reviews of the initiatives of deputies and senators. In particular, amendments expanding and tightening the institution of termination of Russian citizenship did not receive support. In addition, the New People faction’s bill to ban fines for likes on the Internet received negative feedback again.

Following the meeting on November 27, three draft amendments to the citizenship law received negative feedback.

The most resonant of them was the initiative of the senator from Crimea Sergei Tsekov, who in July proposed deprive citizenship “by birth” for committing serious crimes. Currently, this procedure applies only to persons granted Russian citizenship. The Commission in its review recalls that the law clearly distinguishes between citizens by birth and persons who have acquired Russian citizenship, and the institution of “termination of citizenship due to guilty actions is fairly provided only for the second category of persons.”

Mikhail Matveev, a deputy from the Communist Party of the Russian Federation, spoke in favor of addition to the list of crimes that are grounds for termination of citizenship, crimes against life and health, as well as against sexual integrity and sexual freedom of the individual, including minor crimes. But the commission considered that this approach “translates the institution of termination of Russian citizenship into the criminal legal plane,” turning it into “an additional form of responsibility for crimes committed.” In addition, the new law on citizenship came into force only on October 26, and before it is implemented, it is necessary to formulate and study law enforcement practice, the review notes.

Finally, a group of LDPR deputies led by their leader Leonid Slutsky proposed expand the grounds for rejecting applications for admission to Russian citizenship, supplementing them with a criminal record in Russia for committing any crime and the fact of criminal prosecution if the case was dismissed on non-rehabilitative grounds. According to officials, this initiative also lacks an analysis of law enforcement practice and statistics that would indicate the inadequacy of legal regulation in this area.

“The new citizenship law was discussed for more than a year, came into force in October and replaced the previous one, which had existed for 20 years. Approximately this planning horizon should apparently be kept in mind when proposing some conceptual changes in this area,” believes Pavel Sklyanchuk, a member of the Russian Association of Public Relations. “Spot changes are possible, but they will come from the president or the government, while “while parties can use the topic of citizenship and the rights and responsibilities associated with it as part of their ideological programs, since the topic allows them to shape the identity of Russian society.”

The government commission also did not support a number of socially oriented bills.

For example, Boris Chernyshov (LDPR) developed amendments to the Labor Code, giving the employee the right demand from the employer a reduction in working hours in hot conditions. But the Cabinet of Ministers considered that this issue had already been resolved by the sanitary rules approved by the decree of the chief state sanitary doctor in January 2021.

In addition, several bills from the New People faction were rejected. In particular, they advocated providing municipal deputies with the opportunity to veto decisions on infill development (if it worsens access to social facilities), and citizens have the right to initiate such a ban by collecting signatures of 1% of local residents. The review notes that citizens already have the opportunity to implement their proposals through the Russian Public Initiative Internet service. A amendments to include school parent meetings in the list of collegial governing bodies and grant them the right to make decisions on issues of nutrition, clothing requirements for schoolchildren and the dismissal of teachers, the government commission rejected them as contrary to the Labor Code. In addition, the current law, according to the Cabinet of Ministers, already provides for the possibility of parents participating in the management of a general education organization in the form determined by its charter.

In addition, “New People” again received a negative review on initiative on banning fines for likes on the Internet. In a review dated March 14, the government indicated that the legislation does not define the concepts of “expressing emotions” and “marking publications” used in the draft, and the explanatory note does not contain statistics indicating the presence of systemic problems. In addition, the plenum of the Supreme Court back in September 2018 decided that when considering cases of publications on the Internet, it is necessary to take into account the presence or absence of a person’s direct intent and purpose of inciting hatred or humiliation of dignity. Resubmitting the project to the government, the authors added a note that the expression of emotions “should be understood as placing any marks on the Internet to express the attitude of users to the message.” However, the legal commission responded to the deputies that the comments made in the previous review “remain relevant.”

Ksenia Veretennikova