Moratorium or discussion: how to stop the "mad printer" of legislation. Have you debugged the crazy printer? Taxes and fees

In a few days, the sixth convocation of the State Duma will finish its work. It will undoubtedly go down in the history of the country: the Russian parliament has never passed such a number of prohibitive and openly repressive laws in recent history. Already a few months after the start of the current convocation, the State Duma received the name "enraged printer." However, by the end of the term, even this name was not enough: the printer turned into a much more dangerous tool.

Photo from the website of the State Duma

Saying goodbye to the sixth convocation of the State Duma, the Political Council decided to recall the most odious and scandalous laws adopted by the Russian parliament since 2012. The main problem was to choose only 10 laws from the legislative legacy of the Duma that literally changed the country. As we understand, in fact, there were much more such laws. Our version of ten is as follows.

municipal reform

It is worth starting not with numerous bans (we will also talk about them), but with laws that have changed the political landscape of Russia. First and foremost here is a package of laws on "municipal reform" (a whole series of amendments to FZ-131 on local self-government). The fundamental innovation adopted by the State Duma is that now the city management system is determined not by the cities themselves, but by the regional authorities - governors and legislative assemblies. It was the first step. The second step was for governors to be allowed to cancel mayoral elections, replacing direct popular vote with competitive appointments. Of course, many governors took advantage of this opportunity and eliminated elected mayors in the bud. The people were not particularly interested in the reform, did not protest, and, it seems, did not even notice how they were deprived of the right to elect the city government. Local self-government, already weak, turned out to be finally built into the notorious vertical.

Selective filters

Other politically important innovations in legislation are related to amendments to laws on the election of governors, regional parliaments and the State Duma. On the one hand, the legislation seemed to have been liberalized - there were more parties, formal requirements for election participants were relaxed. But in fact, such an innovation as municipal and party filters was invented, which allowed the authorities to literally filter the lists of candidates, allowing only loyal and not dangerous politicians to enter the elections. To run for governor, a candidate needs to collect the signatures of municipal deputies (the vast majority of which are controlled by United Russia). A political party can participate in elections without collecting signatures only if it has its representatives in the lower parliaments. As a result, a Jesuitical and mocking system has developed: having returned the election of governors, the authorities, through the hands of the State Duma, have actually retained their appointment, simply making the whole procedure more complicated, cumbersome and outwardly similar to real elections.

We must not forget about another filter - a ban on candidates with a criminal record. Adopted under the slogan of combating crime in power, this filter actually made it possible to keep the most principled oppositionists out of the elections. The main victim of this law is Alexei Navalny, who is now closed to any election campaign.

"Law of Dima Yakovlev"

Officially, the law is called "On Measures to Influence Persons Involved in Violations of Fundamental Human Rights and Freedoms, Rights and Freedoms of Citizens of the Russian Federation." Behind this meaningless name lies a law that forbids US citizens from adopting children from Russia. According to popular belief, it was this document that became a turning point in the history of the current convocation of the State Duma - it was indicatively adopted against the backdrop of stormy public discussions with the full unanimity of the deputies. Formally, the law did not affect politics and power, but concerned the most vulnerable inhabitants of the country - orphans who have little chance of finding a family. Nevertheless, the document was adopted, becoming a symbol of a new era: anti-Americanism has since become one of the main ideological principles, and the State Duma has shown its readiness to fulfill any will of the Kremlin, even the most ambiguous one.

Rallies Law

The first prohibitive law of the sixth convocation of the State Duma was the "law on rallies" - fundamental amendments to the Federal Law "On meetings, rallies, demonstrations, marches and pickets", adopted after a wave of street protests and clashes on Bolotnaya Square in Moscow. The law, firstly, has repeatedly increased the fines for violations of the procedure for holding street actions, and, secondly, it has expanded the list of violations itself, under which any rally can now be summed up if desired. Two years later, the legislation on rallies was tightened even more - now for repeated violations during street actions, you can get a real prison term. There are already the first convicts under this article in Russia. In the political sense, the “law on rallies” made it impossible for the opposition to use the tactics of legal street protest: the authorities have the opportunity to refuse to hold any rally they don’t like, and for uncoordinated actions they can send organizers and participants to prison. A repeat of the “protest wave” now seems unlikely.

Law on "gay propaganda"

Another ideologically important law is the so-called “gay propaganda” law. Thanks to him, in 2013, article 6.21 “Propaganda of non-traditional sexual relations among minors” appeared in the Code of Administrative Offenses. This article provides for punishment for “propaganda of non-traditional sexual relations among minors, expressed in the dissemination of information aimed at forming minors in non-traditional sexual attitudes, the attractiveness of non-traditional sexual relations, a distorted idea of ​​the social equivalence of traditional and non-traditional sexual relations, or the imposition of information about non-traditional sexual relations causing interest in such relations, if these actions do not contain a criminally punishable act.

Since the adoption of the law in the country, there have already been many court decisions under this article, which have shown that the courts interpret the concept of “gay propaganda” quite broadly, often issuing fines for any positive opinion about LGBT people or an attempt to give the floor to the gay community. But what is more important here is not so much court decisions as the political significance of the law: from that moment on, homophobia became part of the ideological course of the Russian authorities and one of the most important points of demarcation with the West.

Foreign Agents Law

Legislation on “foreign agents” was one of the first to be developed, back in 2012. According to the law, any NPO that receives funding from abroad and engages in political activities must receive the status of "foreign agent". In addition to the humiliating status, this provides for a stricter attitude towards him on the part of the regulatory authorities. The law has become the most important instrument of government pressure on civil society - not only organizations related to politics (for example, the Golos association, which is engaged in independent election monitoring), but also completely non-political NGOs - for example, the Dynasty Educational Foundation, engaged in the support of science and education. The political significance of the law is that it cut off public organizations from foreign funding, forcing many of them to ask for financial assistance from the state. The state does not refuse such assistance, but it is obvious that in exchange for material support, the authorities demand complete loyalty from NGOs.

"Lugovoy's Law"

The law introduced by deputy Andrey Lugovoi is also called the law on extrajudicial blocking of websites. Actually, that says it all - the document provides that the Prosecutor General's Office may demand to block access to any site if it finds calls for riots or extremist activity there. It is possible to challenge the blocking in court, but it is not so easy to prove to Russian judges that the Prosecutor General's Office may be wrong about something. In fact, the principle itself is important - the authorities got the opportunity to quickly, without a trial, close any site. Now the Prosecutor General is asking that regional prosecutors also have the right to initiate blocking. If this happens, there will obviously be more sites closed without trial. However, the new convocation of the State Duma will have to work on this.

Law on "propaganda of separatism"

In 2013, the State Duma introduced a new article into the Criminal Code - "Public calls for the implementation of actions aimed at violating the territorial integrity of the Russian Federation." In its current version, this article assumes a maximum penalty of five years in prison. The courts have already passed the first sentences under this article. The law, obviously, was supposed to put an end to any discussions about the territorial composition of the Russian Federation, banning even the very talk about the right of certain regions to self-determination. This law became especially relevant in 2014, after the annexation of Crimea to the Russian Federation. Any calls to return Crimea to Ukraine are officially a criminal offense in Russia.

Law on the "registry of prohibited sites"

Now, in 2016, this law seems almost innocuous, but in fact it served as the starting point for the restriction of the Internet by the state. After the adoption of the document in Russia, a register of sites appeared, access to which is limited on the territory of the Russian Federation. Initially, it was supposed to include sites that promote drug use, suicide, or contain child pornography. The registry is maintained by Roskomnadzor, which, after the adoption of this law, actually turned into the main tool of the state to restrict the Network. For more than three years, the law began to work in full force, the restriction of access to sites was put on stream - once Wikipedia was almost closed, access to Rutracker was prohibited. The recent scandal with “suicide groups” on the VKontakte social network is also a consequence of this law, which banned “propaganda of suicide”.

Postponement of elections to the State Duma

The list of “bad” laws ends with a document that, it would seem, concerns only a narrow political community and, at first glance, is not so bad. We are talking about the postponement of elections to the State Duma from December to September 2018. Why this was done is still not very clear: apparently, in order to move the campaign to the summer, when voters are on vacation. But this is not what is important, what is important is that the reduction of the term of office of State Duma deputies by two and a half months did not fit into the Constitution. The basic law of the country simply does not provide for such a possibility of postponing elections. However, the State Duma did this, enlisting the support of the Constitutional Court, which allowed the elections to be postponed "for constitutionally significant purposes." From a political point of view, the law proclaimed a new principle: "if the Constitution does not allow, but the government really wants to, then it can do it." It can be expected that according to the same scheme, the country's leadership will be able to make some other changes that do not fit into the Constitution - for example, regarding elections or the terms of office of the president.

Speaking about all these laws adopted by the State Duma, we must not forget that many of them were actually initiated not by the parliament, but by the presidential administration (or at least agreed with it). In addition, all laws were approved by the Federation Council and signed by President Vladimir Putin. So it would probably be wrong to consider the State Duma the only source or focus of evil. However, this is not a reason to relieve her of responsibility.

In September-October, the US Congress may consider and introduce several sanctions bills against Russia at once. In July alone, a number of congressmen (including heavyweights) introduced five bills, and several more are being prepared - it seems that Congress is also becoming a "crazy printer", at least on issues where there is even the slightest mention of Russia.

Such a shaft of manufactured products has one important feature - it begins to take on a chaotic, unsystematic and reactive character. Which reduces its effectiveness (and in the United States they are already saying that sanctions against Russia work, but they do not work well). And if so, there is a temptation to "put the squeeze on" by adopting a couple more or a dozen sanctions acts. Which further chaoticizes the situation, in no way bringing the States closer to the stated goal.

If you look at the sanctions that the United States imposed against Iran (or rather, returned to the previous sanctions regime), you can see their economy and consistency. Each point hits Iran's key points of vulnerability extremely painfully. The main vulnerability is that Iran's aggressive expansionist policy is the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, and the sanctions destroy the economic and financial stability of the IRGC, cutting off its access to resources, preventing the Corps from trading in its oil and receiving currency. Obama, having introduced the sanctions regime against Iran, made it so balanced and systemic that Trump, who is going like a battering ram on all Obama's decisions, did not invent anything here - the design turned out to be so good that it was not needed at all somehow edit. There are, of course, a number of pitfalls associated with the fact that Iran has, albeit limited, but experience in how to circumvent these sanctions, which are already familiar to it, but the design itself is almost ideal in terms of its balance.

The Americans’ sanctions against Russia, in fact, are getting worse and worse, since they are of a momentary (largely reflex) nature, and besides, they are rather of the nature of an intra-American political struggle - the Republicans against the Democrats, and all together - against Trump. Therefore, surprising things are starting to emerge in bills on sanctions against Russia - for example, the administration's ban on leaving NATO without the approval of two-thirds of Congress. Where is Russia, and where is the US withdrawal from NATO.

For the Russian nobility, which has already fallen under sanctions, this, of course, is still not too much consolation. So far, Deripaska can be considered the most affected, although other holders of mafia obshchaks were not weakly walked over. Ahead is a blow to the systemically important banks with state participation - primarily Sberbank, VTB, VEB, a number of recently nationalized problem banks, which are being turned into agents for the implementation of various state programs. Americans, apparently, are aware of the low efficiency of the measures taken, and compensate for the quality of the decisions made by their quantity.

However, one should not deceive oneself - Russia here does not act as a subject, but rather as an object of American policy (more precisely, a fierce struggle within the American establishment). Trump is a destroyer. He is demolishing the structures created by the globalists while trying to clear the ground for Pax Americana 2.0 at the same time. In this sense, it is difficult to position his opponents only in terms of party affiliation - there are also enough globalists in the ranks of the Republicans. Trump's main goal is to defeat Europe and China, not some kind of Russia. In our country, all the actions of the United States are presented as pathetic attempts to shake the Caudillo of all times and peoples, monumentally trampling the heavens with his head, but in this case these are phantom imperial pains - today's Russia has ceased to set itself the goal of catching up even with Portugal,

Trump needs to solve a whole system of equations: free the European market from Russian hydrocarbons and Chinese technological products, while not completely bringing down the Putin regime so that he does not go under China, undoubtedly strengthening it. Trump solves the Chinese problem through a trade war, the purpose of which is to transfer high-tech enterprises under the jurisdiction of America. However, even here the collapse of China is not a priority for him: it is enough if personalities change in the Chinese leadership - the hard Xi leaves, and the much more negotiable Li Keqiang (for example) comes. This is not about finding collaborators in the Chinese elite, but about more flexible ones, able to fix losses without bringing them to complete bankruptcy. The same Trump is not at all interested in the bankruptcy of China.

Only having achieved the results he needs, Trump can negotiate with every loser (Europe and China in the first place), where he will dictate the terms of a new peace treaty. Any war always looks the same - first, the defeat of the enemy and the act of surrender, then a peace conference with a new "eternal peace". The war that Trump is waging today with the emerging and already standing global world is no exception. So far, no deviations from the general principles have been observed in its implementation.

The State Duma of the sixth convocation, elected with scandals in December 2011, is leaving for the last vacation, after which it will resign. In less than five years, the deputies have done a great amount of work, having marked themselves with many bills. Sibnet.ru offers to recall the most resonant of them.

The State Duma of the 2011-2016 model was nicknamed the "enraged printer" because of the large number of hastily adopted prohibitive laws without prior discussion with the public. Commenting on one of these laws, the famous TV presenter Vladimir Pozner made a famous reservation, calling the State Duma "the State Duma."

At the same time, the sixth convocation was one of the "most scientists" - 143 out of 450 deputies had the title of doctor of science, and 71 - professors. The deputies themselves were aware of this, which is the reason for the scandalous statement of the deputy from the "United Russia" Ilya Kostunov. "The dumbest deputy is smarter than the average citizen," he said. The minds of the deputies developed and submitted for consideration almost 4,000 bills, of which about 15% were adopted.

Few believed that the Crimean peninsula could return to Russia. However, the events in Kyiv at the end of 2013 promptly pushed Crimea and Sevastopol towards Moscow. On March 16, 2014, a referendum on joining Russia was held on the territory of the peninsula, and on March 18, a corresponding agreement was signed. The State Duma of the Russian Federation ratified it on March 20, and the Federation Council on March 21. That is, the whole process took only about a week. So Crimea became Russian.

Russian President Vladimir Putin personally thanked the deputies for their efficiency. “I consider the legal integration of Crimea and Sevastopol, which was preceded by your sincere, cordial moral support for the inhabitants of the peninsula on the eve of the referendum on joining the Russian Federation, to be a truly historic result of the work of your convocation,” the president said.

It is safe to say that the consequences of the annexation of Crimea affected every Russian. The international community for the most part did not recognize this step, many countries imposed sanctions on Russia. She, in turn, responded with a food embargo. All this led to higher prices and lower living standards for Russians, especially since the sanctions coincided with the fall in oil prices.

At the end of December 2012, the State Duma adopted the so-called "Dima Yakovlev Law", named after a Russian boy who died in the United States due to the irresponsibility of his adoptive American parents. The law banned the entry into Russia of foreigners involved in the violation of human rights, but the greatest public outcry was caused by its ban on the adoption of Russian orphans by Americans.

It is believed that the “Dima Yakovlev law” was a response to the US-adopted “Magnitsky list” with visa sanctions against those Russians who are allegedly involved in human rights violations. However, Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev later denied this, saying that the law "was adopted on an emotional wave associated with the relevant decisions of the US Congress, but neither legally nor in fact it is connected with the Magnitsky Act."

The ban on the adoption of Russian children by Americans caused a wave of criticism from the opposition, some officials and the Internet community. Many thought that the Kremlin was “hiding behind children”, and immediately after the signing of the law by Putin, the hashtag #Putinestchildren topped the top in the Russian Twitter segment. The president himself answered this as follows: “There are probably many places in the world where the standard of living is better than ours. So what, we send all the children there? Maybe we can move there ourselves?

Photo: © Vladimir Saraev, Sibnet.ru

The sixth convocation of the State Duma gave a real fight to Internet pirates by adopting a number of relevant laws. On August 1, 2013, a law called "anti-piracy" by the people came into force. It regulated the rules for blocking Internet sites that illegally host films and series. Since November 2014, music, books and software have also been protected.

Internet giants such as Google, Yandex and Mail.ru opposed the adoption of the law. Yandex called the law “technically unrealizable and potentially dangerous,” and experts noted that the law could become a weapon of political censorship and harm the copyright holders themselves. One of the first results of the adoption of the law was the mass removal of music tracks on the VKontakte social network.

A year earlier, the State Duma adopted a law on the "black list" of Internet sites. It provided for the creation of a unified registry of Internet sites (domain names, network addresses, site page indexes) containing prohibited information, as well as mechanisms for restricting access to them. As a result, due to the carelessness of the wording, blocking threatened even Wikipedia, but the largest torrent trackers in Russia - Rutracker.org, Rutor.org and nnm-club.me - could not be avoided.

Photo: © Sibnet.ru

During the work of the current State Duma, the life of Russian smokers has changed a lot. Thanks to the deputies, there are fewer places for smoking, and the cigarettes themselves are more difficult to buy. The anti-tobacco law came into force on June 1, 2013 - then a ban on smoking was introduced on the territory of stadiums, schools, universities, hospitals, shops, playgrounds, elevators and airplanes. A year later, the ban also extended to trains, stations, hotels, cafes and restaurants.

The sale of cigarettes in kiosks was banned. Shops also changed the rules of trade - cigarette packs can no longer be shown, only price tags are allowed to be displayed on the shelves. The advertising of tobacco products and the demonstration of smoking on TV screens were banned. If the process of smoking is necessary for the realization of an artistic intention or is present in old films, then this is always preceded by a warning about the dangers of this activity.

The cigarette packs themselves were "decorated" with frightening inscriptions and pictures. In addition, the deputies attacked hookahs and electronic cigarettes - their use in public places is prohibited. And the deputies, apparently, are not going to stop at this - for example, there were initiatives to limit the time for selling cigarettes, as is now done with alcohol.

Photo: © Vladimir Saraev, Sibnet.ru

In the wake of protest rallies that swept Russian cities after the State Duma elections of dubious honesty, the deputies considered it necessary to legally restrict the rights and freedoms of citizens. In June 2012, a law was passed that toughened penalties for organizers and participants in rallies. The maximum fines were repeatedly increased - from 5 thousand to 1.5 million rubles.

Two years later, the “nuts” were tightened even tighter - according to the new article 212.1 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation, repeated violations of the procedure for holding meetings, rallies, marches or picketing are punishable by up to five years in prison.

Towards the end of the State Duma, in June 2016, the deputies adopted the so-called "anti-terrorist package" of bills, developed by deputy Irina Yarovaya and senator Viktor Ozerov. The “Yarovaya package” provides for imprisonment for up to one year for “failure to report a crime” and up to 10 years for inciting mass riots, lowering the age of criminal responsibility in cases of terrorism to 14 years, and tightening control over correspondence.

Elections for the new State Duma will be held on September 18. The elections will be held according to a mixed system: out of 450 deputies, 225 will be elected from party lists in a single federal district, another 225 - in single-mandate districts. The last time such a system was used was in the elections in 2003.

Parliamentary Observer of IA "Rosbalt"

Two months have passed since the beginning of the year, and the State Duma has not adopted a single law capable of causing a heated discussion, at least in social networks. The only exception was the decision to decriminalize family beatings, which was supported by deputies at the end of January. Since then, Okhotny Ryad has not been “lit up”.

Yes, individual deputies, like LDPR leader Vladimir Zhirinovsky, periodically continue to excite the public with their statements. Other parliamentarians, under the threat of a fine, regularly attend plenary meetings twice a week, discuss something at them, automatically press the voting buttons, make comments for the press, but without the former “light”. In other words, although there is increased activity in the Duma, all this running around and fuss is just an imitation, violent activity for the sake of activity itself.

Meanwhile, many are accustomed to perceive the State Duma as a "circus", no matter how insulting it may sound for the deputies. And over the years, the Russian parliament has actively supported this image, acting as one of the main public irritants. Everyone knows that the State Duma has not influenced the adoption of key decisions for a long time, and deputies work, by and large, as extras. But on Okhotny Ryad it was always at least fun and life was in full swing, even when United Russia was firmly established in the parliament.

Now the "circus" is clearly going to move out, but apparently it is not being replaced by a real parliament as the notorious "place for discussions", but by something dull, similar to a bureaucratic office.

Someone will say that the majority of Western parliaments and parliamentarians are also boring and unemotional. European deputies can spend months chewing on one amendment to the law with the participation of numerous experts and the interested public. And if a resonant law enters the parliament, then it becomes a whole event.

In the Russian parliament, scandalous legislative initiatives until recently were considered quite common practice. Citizens are accustomed to the fact that people's representatives always want to ban something or punish someone. It is not so important that most of such initiatives were cut off even at the stage of consideration in the relevant committees of the State Duma, but the deputies themselves managed to gain fame in the media and earn political points. And at the same time to train citizens in participating in political discussions, albeit sometimes meaningless and just as imitative in nature.

Now, however, the people's deputies have sharply quieted down, and controversial proposals, such as raising the retirement age, come for the most part already from officials. At the same time, it is clear to everyone that they will not be implemented before the presidential elections in 2018.

It is precisely the upcoming presidential campaign, the difficult socio-economic situation and the negative mood of the population that could explain the reluctance of State Duma deputies to once again irritate and anger citizens who, who knows how, will react to another controversial legislative initiative.

The presidential administration has also recently ceased to be the main informal legislative center and, apparently, has focused on preparing for the upcoming elections. Moreover, they still have not decided on a new Duma curator.

And yet, it seems that the underlying causes of the changed behavior of the deputies lie in the actions of Vyacheslav Volodin, who, from the moment he was elected speaker of the State Duma, decided to radically change the Russian parliament. More precisely, to rid the State Duma of all the negative image load, due to which, for example, such a term as “mad printer” has firmly entered the modern Russian political language. Instead of "stamping" and "circus with horses" he wants to create a solid body of state power, which is not ashamed to lead. Even if it becomes boring and predictable.

To solve this problem, a working group was created on Okhotny Ryad under the leadership of Ivan Melnikov, First Vice Speaker of the State Duma from the Communist Party of the Russian Federation. It is her proposals that the deputies will have to approve in the near future, after which, as they say, they will begin to live in a new way.

In the meantime, for several months now, the State Duma has been mainly engaged in clearing away the legislative blockages left over from the past. It is expected that the parliamentarians will revise the bills introduced in the previous convocations of parliament. Already now they are recommended to withdraw projects that have lost their relevance. Similar work will be carried out by Duma factions, regional legislative assemblies and the government of the Russian Federation.

After that, in order to introduce any bill, MPs will need to overcome numerous filters. And although Okhotny Ryad argues that no one will restrict the right to legislative initiative, and all agreements with factions will be voluntary, the infringement of deputy freedom is obvious. From now on, each of the parliamentarians will know that any initiative can result in sanctions, up to not being included in the party list in the next election.

What kind of creativity is there? The deputies were surrounded, like wolves, with red flags and numerous experts. Earlier it was reported about plans to increase the cost of the examination of bills to 10 million rubles for each faction. They also talked about the creation of a lawmaking center under the State Duma, expert councils under the vice-speakers of the State Duma, etc.

One can only guess how independent and really reflect public opinion all these experts are. Moreover, in this situation, the question arises of the continued existence of the Public Chamber, which was originally called upon to play the role of the main expert for the State Duma.

Like it or not, but the new rules have already affected the activities of the deputies, who are in no hurry to show themselves in the legislative field and try not to stick out once again. The activity rating is still headed by United Russia, which has introduced 57 bills since the beginning of the convocation. A Just Russia is not far behind with 50 projects, followed by the Liberal Democratic Party - 38 and the Communist Party of the Russian Federation - 22. At the same time, only a few of them can be called bright and really relevant, that is, reflecting public demand.

Scandalous bills are available, but in single copies. However, their deputies decided to postpone to a later date. This included not only projects such as a ban on MPs from meeting with voters without notifying the authorities, but also a proposal not to allow parents to name their children whatever they like.

Speaker Volodin can be proud - the deputies have become so quiet and obedient that they almost no longer anger or annoy anyone. From the laws they adopt, ordinary voters are neither hot nor cold. Deputies cease to evoke any emotions at all and slowly turn from “clowns” into “vegetables”.

Elena Zemskova