There is no place for sex on a pole – Kommersant

Petersburg parliamentarians submitted to the State Duma a bill on administrative responsibility for advertising sexual services in public places. The deputies propose to supplement the Code of Administrative Offenses of the Russian Federation with a corresponding article with a sanction for violators-individuals in the amount of 20 thousand to 50 thousand rubles, for legal entities – 500 thousand rubles. The head of St. Petersburg United Russia Pavel Krupnik clarified that the initiative is not aimed at combating prostitution, which “is not in vain considered the most ancient profession”, but only with the dominance of relevant advertising.

Petersburg deputies from the United Russia faction Pavel Krupnik, Denis Chetyrbok and Vsevolod Belikov propose to fine for “placing or distributing in public places advertising of sexual services with offers of dating, spending time (rest) with men and (or) women, including those containing hidden offer” with contact information. They insist on the inclusion of Art. 14.3.2 “Advertising of sexual services” in the Code of Administrative Offenses of the Russian Federation. The amount of the fine will be from 20 thousand to 50 thousand rubles. for individuals, from 50 thousand to 100 thousand rubles. for officials, from 100 thousand to 500 thousand rubles. for legal entities. The bill introduced by the Parliament of St. Petersburg appeared in the electronic database of the State Duma.

First of all, the authors gave a definition of sexual services. This refers to “sexual intercourse, sodomy, lesbianism”, as well as other acts of a sexual nature that are committed for monetary or other reward.

An ad with a “hidden offer” was defined by parliamentarians as a “verbal or visual representation of sexual services” that the offer does not directly contain.

The explanatory note to the bill states that advertisements offering such services are placed on drainpipes, bus stops, poles, and house walls. “Advertisers are not limited to one or more ads: the leaflets contain a significant area of ​​the surfaces indicated above,” the authors of the project specify. According to them, this “causes damage to property and distorts the appearance of the city.”

“For me, the revelry that we have seen in recent years is unacceptable,” said Pavel Krupnik, head of the United Russia faction, to Kommersant. “The first thing guests of our city see when they leave the Moscow railway station are ads on billboards, bus stops.” . He clarified that he was fighting the dominance of advertising: “Prostitution is not in vain considered the most ancient profession, even under the communists it was. I do not set myself the goal of defeating prostitution. I think it’s just absurd. There will always be people who are willing to “purchase” this service, and those who are willing to provide it. But advertising of such services has no right to be on the streets of St. Petersburg. Who needs to find this ad on other resources. But our pensioners, blockade survivors, standing at a bus stop on Nevsky Prospekt with their grandchildren, should not see and read such announcements.”

Petersburg deputies almost unanimously supported the initiative. Several lawmakers refused to vote, and only one spoke out against it – Alexei Zinchik, a deputy from the Communist Party faction. “They didn’t answer me (during the discussion of the bill.— “b”) the procedure for the implementation of the law and the composition of the administrative offense,” he explained in a conversation with Kommersant. “I asked several questions. How will its composition be determined? Woman’s name and phone number – will this be considered an administrative offense? Who will be the violator: the one who posted the ad, or the one who answers the number? I felt that the law was completely unenforceable.”

Roman Parkhomenko, a partner at the Pen & Paper Bar Association, recalls that this is not the first attempt to combat advertising of sexual services: “In St. Petersburg, more than ten years ago, administrative responsibility was established for “organizing the distribution and distribution of advertising and other informational printed products of an erotic nature, containing including the hidden offer of sexual services. The fine is from 500 rubles. up to 1 thousand rubles for individuals.

Advertising of sexual services is actually banned at the federal level, Mr. Parkhomenko believes, since the current legislation prohibits prostitution.

“It seems that the initiative is primarily due to the fact that the city on its own cannot cope with the problem of distributing such advertising. This is not surprising – protocols on administrative offenses have the right to draw up officials of the committee on issues of legality, law and order and security. In addition, modest fines do not discourage people from engaging in shadow business, the lawyer notes. Certainly, the imposition of a significant fine can reduce the number of those who want to “find themselves” in the distribution of such advertising. However, the inevitability of the sanction is of primary importance, not its size. To what extent will the police, already overloaded with powers and responsibilities, effectively suppress this violation, identify and prosecute the perpetrators?

Andrey Chertkov, chairman of the Human Rights Commission under the Council of the St. Petersburg Chamber of Advocates, called the draft law an example of a “legislative itch.”

“If we are worried about the cleanliness of the city, then it does not matter whether it is an advertisement for sexual services or a charitable foundation, the law should be the same for everyone. If you can’t place ads in certain places, then this should be stopped regardless of their context,” he insists. In addition, Mr. Chertkov draws attention, there is no concept of sexual services in the legislation now, but only “prostitution”. “I believe that the abundance of any illegal advertising is unacceptable for the city,” he stressed. “Relevant committees and law enforcement agencies should deal with the problem – they have all the necessary leverage.”

Not supported, we note, in its review of the bill and the government of the Russian Federation. “The Code of Administrative Offenses establishes administrative liability for violation of the norms and rules established by federal laws and other legal acts of the Russian Federation,” the Cabinet noted. “In this regard, until the relevant provision (prohibition) is fixed in federal legislation and monitoring its application, the establishment of projected administrative responsibility seems premature “.

Nadezhda Yarmula, St. Petersburg