Press Release, 23.11.2021

Photo by vladislavgajic/depositphotos

The legislative initiative of the Yabloko faction proposing to completely eliminate the concept of “foreign agent” from Russian legislation has undergone legal expertise in the Legislative Assembly of St. Petersburg. The draft was prepared by Lev Levinson, an expert of the Institute of Human Rights, at the request of the deputies of the Yabloko faction.

After some legal and technical corrections as requested by the legal department of the Legislative Assembly, deputies from the Yabloko party Alexander Shishlov and Boris Vishnevsky introduced the bill “On Amending Certain Legislative Acts of the Russian Federation in order to exclude provisions on persons performing the functions of a foreign agent” for consideration by the St. Petersburg parliament. If supported by the St.Petersburg Legislative Assembly, the bill will be sent to the State Duma for consideration. Yabloko also sent the bill to regional parliaments, where there are deputies from Yabloko – Moscow, Karelia and Pskov – so that they could submit the bill in their regional parliaments and if adopted, the regional parliaments can submit the bill to the State Duma.

“The attempts to initiate “improvements” to the legislation on “foreign agents”, including those within the framework of the work of the Council for the Development of Civil Society and Human Rights under the President of the Russian Federation, remain unimplemented. This confirms the viciousness of the very concept of legislation on “foreign agents”, which actually leads to systematic violations of the constitutional rights of citizens and impedes the development of the Russian Federation as a law governed state,” Alexander Shishlov, former St.Petersburg Ombudsman on Human Rights and MP of the Legislative Assembly, said.

Boris Vishnevsky emphasised that the vagueness of the wording of the legislative norms, the extrajudicial nature of the procedure for recognizing legal and physical persons “foreign agents”, the expanding discriminatory restrictions on the activities of “foreign agents” and the established law enforcement practices hamper the work of civil society institutions. The viciousness of the legislation on “foreign agents” has become especially evident in recent years, when discriminatory norms began to be applied to non-profit organisations implementing socially significant projects, mass media and journalists.

The abolition of the concept of a “foreign agent” was one of the key items of the Yabloko programme in the State Duma elections that took place in September 2021. If the initiative of the Yabloko faction is adopted, changes will be made to more than 30 legal acts.

BORIS VISHNEVSKY

is Deputy Chairman of the Yabloko Party, member of the Yabloko Federal Political Committee and  Bureau. Leader of the Yabloko faction in the Legislative Assembly of St. Petersburg