Press Release, 28.10.2020

Photo: Action in memory of journalist Irina Slavina who committed self-immolation.

Yabloko party Chairman Nikolai Rybakov called on Russian President Vladimir Putin and the heads of the upper and lower chambers of parliament Valentina Matviyenko and Vyacheslav Volodin to introduce the bill developed by the Yabloko party and envisaging abolishing of the laws on foreign agents and undesirable organisations.

In his address accompanying the text of the relevant Yabloko’s draft law (read more in Russian) Nikolai Rybakov writes that these laws “caused colossal damage to the citizens of our country, civil society institutions, socially oriented non-profit organisations and people and oranisations they are helping”. Many NGOs were forced to terminate their activities and the work of others was seriously hampered, the appeal runs.

“The fate of Irina Slavina, a journalist from Nizhny Novgorod, a true patriot of our country, [who committed self-immolation in protest against pressure, threats and searches in her home] has become a tragic occasion to once again think about these destructive laws. The persecution to which she was subjected by representatives of law enforcement agencies, including that grounded on this legislation, became the reason for her act [of self-immolation] that shocked our entire society, and, I hope you, too,” the letter of the Yabloko Chairman runs.

If neither the President nor the Speakers of the State Duma and the Federation Council submit the proposed bill on their own behalf, Yabloko’s deputies will do so in the regional legislative assemblies [where Yabloko has factions]. Yabloko is represented in the parliaments of Moscow, St. Petersburg, Karelia, the Pskov region, the Kostroma region, and the Astrakhan region and Khabarovsk Territory.

The law on non-profit organisations – foreign agents was adopted in 2012. According to this law, this status can be assigned to the organisations receiving foreign funding and engaged in “political activities”, whereas the latter can be attributed to anything. The Law on “Undesirable Organisations” came into force in 2015. It envisages that the activities of a foreign or international non-governmental organisation posing a threat to the foundations of the constitutional system of Russia, the defense capability or security of the state may be recognised as undesirable on the territory of Russia. However, clear regulatory criteria for the status of undesirability have not been presented to society.

In December 2019, the Yabloko party prepared a list of 53 repressive laws that violate the rights and freedoms of citizens and thus should be abolished. In addition to the law on NGOs – foreign agents and  “undesirable organisations”, Yabloko list includes the laws on extrajudicial blocking of websites by the Federal Service for Supervision in the Sphere of Telecom, Information Technologies and Mass Communications (Roskomnadzor), on “insulting religious feelings”, on “LGBT propaganda”, an anti-orphan law prohibiting adoption of Russian orphans by non-Russian citizens, amendments to the law on the Federal Security Service considerably expanding its powers, the Yarovaya-Ozerov package of laws envisaging an expansion of authority for law enforcement agencies [including mandatory requirements for telecom operators to store recordings of phone conversations, text messages and users’ internet traffic up to six months and mandatory deciphering in the telecommunications industry, as well as increased regulation of evangelism, and a ban on the performance of “missionary activities” in non-religious settings], the Dadin-Kotov law envisaging imprisoning for “repeated violation of the established procedure for organising or holding a meeting, rally, demonstration, procession or picketing”, the prohibition on foreign ownership of the media, as well as restrictions on freedom of conscience, freedom of assembly, reduction of the powers of local self-government and other legislative acts.