Gryzlov assured the President that the Duma would amend the draft accordingly.
The bill, strongly criticized by the Russian public, bans rallies and demonstrations outside the Kremlin, government agencies' headquarters, diplomatic missions, hospitals, schools, sports facilities, and so forth.
To get the official go-ahead for a rally, its organizers shall notify authorities of their plans at least ten days in advance. The notification may be overturned if the planned event is seen violating accepted moral norms or posing a threat to public security. The bill gives municipal officials the power to decide whether a rally is antisocial or not.
Gryzlov agreed that the ban on rallies outside the headquarters of government agencies was illegitimate. "Where else shall they [rallies] be held [if not outside government buildings] to show to the government that there're other opinions, too." The bill was drafted last year by the Miklhail Kasyanov Cabinet, dissolved this past February. The Duma has changed the original text somewhat, but not enough, Gryzlov said. According to him, the Russian Constitution guarantees the right to stage rallies and demonstrations, but no related federal law has yet been enacted. Also, each of the Federation member states has its own law on rallies, and these regional laws need to be harmonized.
The United Russia faction, which holds a majority of seats in the State Duma, almost unanimously supported the bill in a March 31 vote, but other MPs, including the Communists, the Liberal Democrats, and the right-wingers, voted against it.
Ella Pamfilova, Chair of the Russian President's Commission for Human Rights, described the bill as a bureaucrat's masterpiece intended to protect the officialdom from the people. "This bill must comply with universally accepted regulatory norms and the Constitution not just in essence as well as in form," Pamfilova pointed out. The law preserves the right to stage a rally, but what's the point in holding one in some out-of-the-way venue? she wondered.
Other human rights activists also criticize the bill, warning that in its current form, it jeopardizes Russian citizens' basic rights and freedoms, specifically the right to gather for peaceful rallies, demonstrations and picketing, which is guaranteed by Article 31 of the Russian Constitution.
This is the first time President Putin has criticized a bill approved by the pro-Kremlin United Russia party, analysts point out.
