Russian Members of Parliament (MPs) on Tuesday approved draft legislation that would prevent contenders affiliated with “extremist” organisations from being elected as lawmakers. The move appears to be a direct rebuke of jailed Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny’s political movement and comes ahead of a court ruling aimed at adding the opposition leader’s network to Russia’s database of terrorist and extremist organisations.
Amidst the waning popularity of the ruling United Russia Party and growing anti-Kremlin rallies across the country, Russian authorities have embarked on a massive campaign to outlaw any opposition to President Vladimir Putin. Proceedings in the ‘extremism’ case against Navalny will now resume on June 9, after a Russian court on Monday accepted additional documents of “evidence” from the prosecution behind closed doors and decided to postpone the hearings.
Though defence lawyers expressed confusion at the level of secrecy of the meeting, local media outlets reported that it was due to the controversial nature of some of the prosecution’s case files, which contained personal information about the police involved in the crackdown on opposition protests. If Navalny’s network and anti-corruption foundation are designated as terror groups, they will join the likes of the Islamic State (IS) and al-Qaeda and could be targetted with long prison sentences.
As for Tuesday’s bill, in its first reading in the State Duma, leaders voted in favour of the text with a 293-45 vote, with two abstentions. It now needs to go through another two votes in the lower house, and one in the Federation Council before being signed into law by Putin.
If passed, the new rules would significantly affect several Navalny allies who had announced their campaigns to run for the legislature in September, including activist and senior Navalny aide Lyubol Sobol, who called the move “unconstitutional.” Heads of any designated organisations will not be allowed to run for five years, while employees will face three-year bans.
“The idea is to enlarge the circle of potential candidates who could want to run and who are seen by the Kremlin as a sort of undesirable figure and to bar them from running in advance. It’s a bill that targets not just the FBK but also its supporters, and thus it targets movements on a much larger scale than just Navalny’s team,” Tatiana Stanovaya, the founder of the political analysis project R.Politik and a nonresident fellow at the Carnegie Moscow Center, told The Moscow Times.
Russia Moves to Block Navalny Allies from Running in Upcoming Parliamentary Elections
Russian MPs on Tuesday approved draft legislation that would prevent contenders affiliated with “extremist” organisations from being elected as lawmakers.
May 19, 2021
SOURCE: OLGA MALTSEVA/AFP VIA GETTY IMAGES