Russian police detain protesters outside the parliament building in Moscow, Russia, Tuesday, June 5, 2012. At least two dozen people have been detained outside Russian Parliament in Moscow as they were protesting against a bill on public rallies. The Kremlin-controlled Russian parliament is expected to pass a legislation on Tuesday that would raise fines 200-fold for taking part in unsanctioned rallies. Opposition leaders say that the law would also exacerbate tensions in the Russian society and leave the public with no free leeway of expressing their discontent. (AP Photo/Misha Japaridze)
Russian police detain protesters outside the parliament building in Moscow, Russia, Tuesday, June 5, 2012. At least two dozen people have been detained outside Russian Parliament in Moscow as they were protesting against a bill on public rallies. The Kremlin-controlled Russian parliament is expected to pass a legislation on Tuesday that would raise fines 200-fold for taking part in unsanctioned rallies. Opposition leaders say that the law would also exacerbate tensions in the Russian society and leave the public with no free leeway of expressing their discontent. (AP Photo/Misha Japaridze)
Russian police detain a protester outside the parliament building in Moscow, Russia, Tuesday, June 5, 2012. At least two dozen people have been detained outside Russian Parliament in Moscow as they were protesting against a bill on public rallies. The Kremlin-controlled Russian parliament is expected to pass a legislation on Tuesday that would raise fines 200-fold for taking part in unsanctioned rallies. Opposition leaders say that the law would also exacerbate tensions in the Russian society and leave the public with no free leeway of expressing their discontent. (AP Photo/Misha Japaridze)
Russian police detain protesters outside the parliament building in Moscow, Russia, Tuesday, June 5, 2012. At least two dozen people have been detained outside Russian Parliament in Moscow as they were protesting against a bill on public rallies. The Kremlin-controlled Russian parliament is expected to pass a legislation on Tuesday that would raise fines 200-fold for taking part in unsanctioned rallies. Opposition leaders say that the law would also exacerbate tensions in the Russian society and leave the public with no free leeway of expressing their discontent. (AP Photo/Misha Japaridze)
MOSCOW (AP) ? The Kremlin-controlled Russian parliament held a marathon session Tuesday to ram through a draconian bill that would raise fines 150-fold for people taking part in unsanctioned rallies in a bid to discourage the opposition from challenging President Vladimir Putin.
The bill would jack up fines from the current 2,000 rubles to 300,000 rubles ($9,000) in response to a series of massive protests that have reflected a growing public irritation with Putin's 12-year rule. The potential punishment is more severe than for many other crimes, including even violations in the storage of nuclear materials.
The opposition factions in the lower house, the State Duma, put forward several hundred amendments in an unprecedented attempt to stymie the bill's passage that reflected their new willingness to stand up to the Kremlin. Members of the Kremlin's majority United Russia party patiently voted them down one by one in a session lasting many hours longer than usual.
The Kremlin wants the new bill become law by next Tuesday when the opposition plans a new massive protest.
Opposition leaders warned that the law would exacerbate tensions in Russian society and leave the public with no free outlet for their discontent.
"In the past, tightening the screws in Russia has only caused bloodshed. This is a sure path to a civil war," Gennady Gudkov of the opposition Fair Russia faction said, addressing the Duma. "You're assuming responsibility for the country's future and pushing it toward a crisis, collapse and bloodshed."
United Russia has a majority of the State Duma's 450 seats, making approval of the bill that requires a simple majority almost certain. But Fair Russia and the Communists have submitted more than 400 amendments to the proposed bill in a bid to slow down the bill's passage and raise public attention.
Since returning to the presidency in May, Putin has toughened his line toward the opposition, whose protests over the winter drew up to 100,000 onto the streets in an unprecedented challenge to his rule. Due to term limits, Putin spent four years in the premier's seat after already serving two consecutive terms as president from 2000 to 2008.
Several dozen of activists, including the leader of the liberal Yabloko party, were detained Tuesday morning outside the State Duma for holding an unsanctioned gathering. Some of them were released shortly afterward.
The bill would see maximum fines for taking part in unsanctioned rallies rise from 2,000 rubles ($60) to 300,000 ($9,000). United Russia, originally proposed an increase to a whopping 1.5 million rubles ($45,000).
For public officials, the maximum fine would be raised to 600,000 rubles ($18,000) from the current 50,000 rubles ($1,500).
For comparison, violating safety precautions in designing, building and using nuclear energy facilities that could cause danger or radioactive contagion is punishable by a fine of 200,000 rubles ($6,000).
The bill's authors also introduced a punishment for any mass public gathering even if it lacks the formal signs of a political protest. That was a clear response to a series of recent creative demonstrations in Moscow, whose participants left their slogans and posters at home and walked silently so their actions don't formally count as rallies.
Russian authorities have routinely denied permissions for rallies to opposition activists or offered rally organizers other venues away from the city center.
The bill will still need to be approved by the upper house and signed by Putin, but both steps are formalities.
____
Nataliya Vasilyeva and Vladimir Isachenkov contributed to this report from Moscow.
Associated Presseric holder carole king crystal renn matilda cab calloway melissa gilbert deadliest catch
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.