YABLOKO picketed the State Duma
against two anti-constitutional bills
Press Release
January 23, 2013
YABLOKO activists held one-person pickets in front of the
State Duma, as the Duma had to consider two unconstitutional
projects: one of them had to simplify the procedure of requisition
of land title from the residents of the "new Moscow territories"
(ex Moscow Region territories) like was the case in the Olympic
Sochi, and the other would allow regions to replace election
of governors by their appointment.
The action was held in accordance with the new law on one-person
pickets: protesters were standing in fifty meters from each
other, and the themes of their protest did not coincide.
The activists were holding placards against abolishing of
election of governors and the new law on regulation of land
property title in Moscow.
The police showed their standard concern to the activists:
they copied the inscriptions on the placards and checked documents
of the activists.
"Introduction of a special procedure for requisition
of property from the residents of the "new Moscow territories"
is a violation of Article 19 of the Russian Constitution,
which guarantees equal rights to citizens regardless of there
place of residence," said YABLOKO leader Sergei Mitrokhin.
The law on the actual abolishing of gubernatorial elections
violates Article 55 of the Constitution, according to which
Russia must not adopt laws impairing the rights of the citizens,
Mitrokhin noted. "The right to elect governors will be
taken away [from us] tomorrow for the second time already,
the first time they took it away in 2004 [and restored in
2012 and first gubernatorial elections were held in October
2012]," he added.
