Press Release, 3.02.2020

Photo: Lev Shlosberg and Artur Gaiduk

Yabloko MPs of the Pskov Regional Assembly Lev Shlosberg and Artur Gaiduk for the second time submitted to the Pskov Regional Assembly a package of bills on the need to government to respect the people.

Yabloko’s bills represent a direct political and legal response to Federal Law No. 28-FZ “On Amendments to the Code of the Russian Federation on Administrative Offenses” dated March 18, 2019, which introduced citizens’ responsibility for “explicit disrespect” for bodies exercising state power and local self-government in Russia.

The introduced bills are aimed at resolving the obvious imbalance between public and private interests in the Russian Federation that arose in connection with the adoption of the aforementioned government’s Federal Law No. 28-FZ dated March 18, 2019, the explanatory note to the bills runs.

Yabloko’s bills propose establishing administrative responsibility “for public actions expressing or forming a negative attitude to the rights and freedoms of a person and citizen established and guaranteed by the Constitution of the Russian Federation, but not bearing signs of extremism”.

In addition, they propose introducing administrative responsibility for the adoption of laws and other legal acts that will be qualified by the court as expressing a clear disrespect for the rights and freedoms of individual and citizen.

The first attempt to introduce the package of bills was made by Lev Shlosberg in the spring of 2019. After the bills were rejected by the majority of the deputies of the regional parliament on May 30, Lev Shlosberg and Yabloko lawyer Yelena Mayatnikova prepared a new version of the bills, which are now submitted to the Legislative Assembly by Yabloko representatives.

According to Shlosberg, “there is a need to legislatively establish the responsibility of the bodies of power and persons claiming respect from citizens. This need reflects a high social need to establish a fair balance of the rights and obligations of ordinary citizens and public officials, primarily those who are elected and who, by virtue of their posts, have the opportunity to use the resources of public authority”.

It should be noted that six months ago, on 30 May, 2019, all the three Yabloko bills were rejected. They were opposed by 28 deputies (United Russia), supported four MPs (the Communist Party and Yabloko), and four abstained (LDPR and A Just Russia).

Lev Shlosberg announced that he would submit the bills “on the responsibility of the authorities for contempt of the people” in his speech at the session of the Pskov Regional Assembly on 28 March. He also created a petition on the change.org “We will teach the government to respect the people!” Over 15,000 people signed in support of the bills on the chang.org website.