Day of Russia, which took place on June 12, 2012, was celebrated by the country according to the new rules. Not long before this, amendments were adopted to the Code of Administrative Offenses and to the Law "On Meetings, Rallies, Demonstrations, Processions and Picketing", which some public figures now refer to as "the law on the abolition of meetings". This opinion clearly characterizes the features of the amendments approved by the legislators.
According to Rossiyskaya Gazeta, the aim of the recent amendments to the legislation on holding rallies was initially to care for the safety of citizens. This was the reason for the clarification of the provisions of the law relating to the holding of public events.
The main change concerned responsibility for violation of the law on rallies. The law now provides for a clear gradation of penalties, which depends on the consequences of misconduct. The list of possible offenses has been expanded from two to eight. The most severe sanctions will await those whose actions during the organization of mass actions and during their conduct will cause situations that have caused harm to human health or damage to property. The upper limit of fines for such violations for legal entities will be 1 million rubles. The maximum fine that a citizen can face is 300 thousand rubles. For officials, this amount is doubled.
By decision of the court, violators can now be punished with compulsory labor for up to 200 hours. The organization of such work will have to be regulated by legal acts in the regions. A group of persons who cannot be involved in compulsory work has been identified. These are pregnant women, disabled people, women with children under 3 years old, the military, as well as some other groups of citizens. Evasion of compulsory work faces a large fine or arrest for up to 15 days.
The new edition of the law on rallies also clarifies the responsibility of organizers of public events. The organizers of the rallies are exempt from liability for harm caused by the participants of the event, if they promptly point out the violators to the representatives of law enforcement agencies. Moreover, such an appeal must be recorded.
Legislative innovations also concern the outfit of participants in public actions. Now they are forbidden to appear in masks or use other means of hiding their identity that make it difficult to identify. You cannot participate in rallies in tightly closed hoods, in a burqa, or in a gauze bandage. This is the main essence of legislative innovations.
The amendments to the law on rallies, which came into force on June 9, 2012, have not yet affected the rallies of the opposition forces that took place in June, the RIA Novosti news agency believes. Observers do not exclude that the absence of those detained during the events in the Russian capital indicates that the new legislation has worked. Political scientists in general unanimously note the decline in public interest in protest actions.
