Press Release, June 19, 2013

Boris Vishnevsky, MP in St.Petersburg Legislative Assembly from the Yabloko faction, proposed to mitigate St.Petersburg law on rallies and demonstrations, however, the “parliamentary majority” from the ruling United Russia party again pretended that they were not present at the session.

Vishnevsky proposed a bill envisaging that rallies and manifestations in the centre of the city would be allowed, the distance between one person pickets would be reduced to five meters and street meetings of MPs from St.Petersburg Legislative Assembly with the voters would not be covered by the law on rallies. Boris Vishnevsky also proposed to define in each district of ​​the city a special place where rallies could be held without prior notification of the authorities.

In his speech in St.Petersburg Legislative Assembly he addressed deputies from the ruling United Russia faction, “I believe that you are honest people and after the change of the government you will not change your principles swapping your party for YABLOKO or some other opposition party which comes to power. And that’s when you will really need freedom of assembly! You may want to go to the Palace Square or St. Isaac’s Square or maybe to Gostiny Dvor. All this will happen, and much faster than you think! It is you who needs this law, think about yourself,” Visnevsky said.

Consequently, 21 deputies out of 50 voted for Vishnevsky’s initiative, which was only five votes short to adopt the bill in the first reading. However, deputies of the “parliamentary majority” from the ruling United Russia neglected the bill.

United Russia MPs think there their party will always be the ruling party. Members of the Communist Party of the USSR also thought like this,” Boris Vishnevsky noted.

“There was nothing revolutionary in the bill,” said Alexander Kobrinsky, the deputy of the Legislative Assembly from the Yabloko faction. “The federal law provides a very narrow room for maneuver: either we have softer restrictions or “tightening of the screws”. The United Russia and the LDPR factions chose the most draconian norms for limiting the freedom of assembly. It was surprising to us, as parliaments of other regions did not always choose the most stringent norms”.

“But 27 MPs from the United Russia, LDPR and two defectors from the Just Russia faction quite predictably rejected the law,” Kobrinsky concluded.