The Union of Right-Wing Forces (SPS) and Yabloko conventionally support at the first reading the draft law "On Political Parties" submitted by the President of the Russian Federation Vladimir Putin. On February 7 the draft was examined together with four alternative drafts

at a meeting of the State Duma. Speaking in the Duma on behalf of the SPS faction, Boris Nadezhdin said that the variant of the draft considered today as the basic variant contains

principal provisions which the members of the SPS faction cannot accept. They think that they should undergo significant changes by the second reading

In particular the SPS faction insists that the clause on the state financing of the political parties should be excluded from the draft. In addition the faction considers it unreasonable to use the number of party members as the basis for its liquidation.

He also said that here in the first place they were referring to "the parties present in politics today". In addition the SPS faction thinks that "the institute of suspension of the activity of the parties" should also be excluded from the draft.

The First Deputy Head of the Yabloko faction Sergei Ivanenko in turn agreed with many of the proposals expressed by Nadezhdin and provided his own assessment of the draft law submitted by the President of the RF.

According to Ivanenko, this variant of the draft "contains a very big problem which runs throughout the draft - administrative arbitrary rule". Here Ivanenko specially referred to the role of the Public Prosecutor's Office in control over the activity of political parties, noting that "the punitive functions of this body are transferred to political parties."

Ivanenko also spoke strongly against state financing of political parties, saying that this financing cannot be implemented in full, as this all virtually represents an attempt to demonstrate only illusory state support.

Ivanenko also noted that it would be desirable to have a "different law - for freer and more democratic country." However, he added that it looked as if the presidential variant would be adopted and this would unfortunately lead to a situation where "the parties will be subject to pressure from the state."

Ivanenko also confirmed that if the amendments proposed by Yabloko for the second reading are not considered, the faction will not support the draft law submitted by the President.

Based on Interfax reports.

See also:

The Section "The Law "On Parties" at Yabloko's web-site".