Press Release, 08.07.2014

On July 9 YABLOKO activists will picket the Federation Council[the upper house of Parliament] which will conduct the last meeting of the spring session.
There are 68 federal laws on the preliminary agenda.

The session will start at 10.00 am, the lunch brake will take place from 02.00 till 03.00 pm. This way if the Federation Council members plan to finish up by 06.00 pm they would have to spend no more than six minutes on consideration of every bill which include the speaker’s report, discussion and voting.

“No one even tries to pretend that the bills are considered in the parliament. The deputies and senators have got used to the though that they cannot influence the legislation process”, said YABLOKO leader.

According to the press release of the Federation Council, “the parliamentarians will consider the amendments to the Budgetary, Tax, Air, Urban Development, Housing, Forest and Criminal Codes”. It means that the parliamentarians will have to make amendments to more than one third (7 out of 19) of the Codes of Russia.

Among a number of useless amendments several repressive laws will be considered including criminal responsibility for repeated law violations at rallies and for “calls for separatism”. The wish to return the Crimea to Ukraine will be punished with four years in prison. They will also pass a bill prohibiting advertisement at paid TV channels. According to the experts, the bill will destroy cable TV in Russia.

The parliament will carry the two gaming zones, in Sochi and the Crimea, into effect.

The senators will approve of the nomination of the new judges of the Supreme Court.

Despite the “busy schedule” the parliamentarians will find time for international relations. According to the press release, “at the beginning of the meeting the agreements on cooperation with Vietnam and Nicaragua in the field of outer space exploration for peaceful purposes will be ratified”.
The picket will start at 09.30 am