Press Release, 09.07.2014
YABLOKO’s activists conducted picketing against the slapdash activities of the Federation Council [the upper house of Parliament] outside the Parliament building today. The consideration of the 68 bills was on the preliminary agenda and on the final there were 85 bills. The senators plan to consider all of them in one day.

The meeting started 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 five minutes on consideration of every bill which include the speaker’s report, discussion and voting.

The placard was printed yesterday but already lost its currency. The senators decided to consider 85 bills instead of 68

“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.

“Today the senators will consider the two bills which will influence the life of people. Especially it concerns the amendments to the Criminal Code. And the deputies decided to pass all the bills in one day. Can we talk about the quality of the legislative activities in this case? The senators do it for appearances’ sake as today is the last meeting of the spring session”, said Grigory Semyonov, YABLOKO candidate for Moscow City Duma deputy.

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”.