Statement by the YABLOKO party

The website of the State Duma published the draft law on “insulting of the religious feelings” prepared for the second reading.

The YABLOKO party notes significant changes introduced into the text since public criticism of the bill.

The authorities abolished very dangerous attempts to grant special rights to some religions as “an integral part of historical heritage of the peoples of Russia”.

The essential elements of the offense must now include a “public action” rather than an abstract “insult” as in the first version. At least this gives a hope that publications in the Internet and in the press will not now fall under the offense in accordance with the law.

Maximum penalties are also reduced two years of imprisonment, not five as in the first version.

However, the concept of the law has remained unchanged and continues trampling the constitutional rights and freedoms of Russian citizens.

Organizers of peaceful protests against, for example, the merger of the Russian Orthodox Church and the state, can still get a year of imprisonment, while the so-called “Orthodox activists” burning books of their opponents get a miserable administrative penalty as maximum punishment.

Defending feelings of only one category of citizens – religious people – the authorities violate the Constitution which guarantees equality of all citizens.

Prohibiting public events, texts and images offending the religious feelings not only by the places of worship, as envisage by the present law, but throughout the country, the bill infringes on the fundamental rights of citizens: freedom of thought and expression, freedom of opinion and information (Article 29 of the Constitution) constituting the key achievements of the civilization.

This means, for example, that the sermons can be broadcasted by television, but atheistic lectures will be prohibited.

A large part of human history took part in denying of the freedom of speech and restricting the opinions and speeches considered harmful, dangerous or false by the authorities and public opinion.

Freedom of thought and expression implies a possibility of dissenting opinions and free thinking than guarantees the right of a person to criticise including conventional notions of morality, law, and religion.

History demonstrates that referring to the [insult of] the “religious feelings” one can do all sorts of atrocities, such as made by the medieval Inquisition.

The law should not:

•  protect religious people from objective and civilised criticism;
•  prohibit the dissemination and promotion of non-religious beliefs by atheists, agnostics, skeptics, as well as individuals interpreting religious texts differently as compared to official religious organisations;
•  constitute an obstacle to the achievements of scientific and artistic thought.

However, the text of the bill prepared for the second reading contains all these challenges for the modern civilization.

Our position remains unchanged: religious people have been sufficiently protected by the present law.

We demand that the State Duma should refuse to accept the repressive law, and we will picket the State Duma when the bill will be examined in the second reading.

Sergei Mitrokhin,

YABLOKO Chairman