The State Duma took a step toward severely tightening the screws on public rallies Friday, passing a bill in a first reading that would ban people from organizing them if previously convicted of offenses as minor as speeding or riding a commuter train without a ticket.
The bill, supported by 312 deputies out of 450, was criticized by Gennady Gudkov, a senior member of the A Just Russia party, as “foolish” and “aimed at hindering the organization of rallies and making them impossible.”
The draft said no individual or legal body, including a political party, may organize a public gathering if convicted of an administrative offense.
The list of administrative offenses includes speeding, traveling without a ticket and minor fire safety violations, as well as a broad range of offenses related to elections and organizing public gatherings.
Rally organizers will also not be permitted to inform the public about their plans, including the topic of the rally, until local authorities approve the date and place of the event, the draft said.
To stage public rallies, organizers currently must file a notice with local authorities, who under the bill will have three working days to reject a planned route and propose a new one.
Rallies that are particularly unwanted by authorities, such as gay pride parades and opposition events, have often failed to secure permission from local authorities in recent years on the grounds that the desired location or route was unavailable.
Moscow City Hall has denied all requests for gay pride parades since 2006, and the St. Petersburg City Hall followed suit last month.
Opposition rallies calling for the constitutionally protected right of free assembly, held on the 31st of every month since last July, regularly end in riot police crackdowns.
The bill also proposes that rules for all public gatherings involving transportation vehicles and held on “transportation infrastructure objects” — which includes roads — are to be set by local authorities.
This change would give authorities the right to ban “blue bucket” car rallies held by motorists opposed to the use of flashing blue lights, which give officials the right to ignore some traffic rules, by putting buckets on the roofs of their own cars, Gudkov said.
The bill “completely bans all such rallies, including the 'blue buckets,' which make the authorities very nervous for some reason,” he said, Interfax reported.
The bill was submitted by two deputies, from the ruling United Russia party and A Just Russia. A deputy with the Liberal Democratic Party was listed on the draft as a third author, but his party has demanded that he withdraw his support.
Maxim Rokhmistrov, deputy head of the Liberal Democratic Party's Duma faction, called the bill unconstitutional because an administrative offense cannot result in a person losing their right to free assembly.
“After paying the fine, a person convicted of an administrative offense cannot be further deprived of other rights,” he said.
But Sergei Markov, a deputy with United Russia who worked on the bill, said it “does not limit the right of parties and movements to stage public meetings in the slightest.”
No date for the crucial second hearing has been set.
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