#6347 Day in progress
[Second Issue of the Day]
#6
Nezavisimaya Gazeta
July 10, 2002
WHO IS THIS LAW AGAINST?
It is necessary to fight extremists within the government
Author: Sergei Mitrokhin, Deputy Chairman of the party Yabloko
[from WPS Monitoring Agency, www.wps.ru/e_index.html]
THE NEW LAW ON COMBATING EXTREMISM IS TOO VAGUE. THE APPLICATION OF THIS LAW WILL DEPEND ON THE POSITION OF CIVIL SOCIETY. IT IS POSSIBLE TO BE SATISFIED WITH A PASSIVE PROTEST CALLING THE LAW SENSELESS AND EVEN HARMFUL. IT IS ALSO POSSIBLE TO USE IT AS A TOOL FOR FIGHTING THE IMPOTENCE OF THE GOVERNMENT.
The law on extremism was considered and adopted by the Duma against the backdrop of terrible events: the terrorist act in Kaspiisk, an explosion of a grenade attached to an anti-Semitic placard on a highway near Moscow, the Moscow riots on June 9, and the outcry against Vladimir Sorokin's books from the Going Together movement. These events are accompanied by incessant appeals to cancel the moratorium on the death sentence, banishment of Catholics, bans on sexual minorities. The society is actively seeking enemies and is easily finding them. The society is demanding that violent methods be used for solution to a great number of problems. The same tendency is also to be observed in the government. The two recent symbolic trial, those of the cases of Dmitry Kholodov and Yury Budanov, have shown that the government is ready to justify violence of the "politically close" against those "politically far."
In the course of the work on the law on political extremism, supporters of democratic standards were in a difficult situation. On the one hand, a lot of underground extremist movements are developing in Russia: nazist, left-radical, Moslem and other ones. They are protected by public organizations. According to the acting Criminal Code, it is possible to accuse individuals for extremism, but the law is absolutely helpless as far as organizations are concerned. If a special law is not made, combating these organizations will be like a fight against a Hydra that has two new heads on the place of one that has just been cut.
On the other hand, some authorities are also ready to apply extremist methods. For instance, a high-ranking official has said that the police should have shot the soccer fans who arranged mass disorders in Moscow.
It is not quite clear what is worse: when the government is helpless against extremists or when it is ready to use extremist methods itself. It seems that the draft law was ordered by a group of people who may be called government extremists. The draft law proposed for the first reading terrified opposition parties and human right advocates. If this draft law had been adopted in its initial version, the government would have received one more cudgel for punishing its opponents. The indistinct formulations made it possible to declare any person an extremist and prohibit any organization.
We think that this law should have an ultimately distinct addressee, and so we suggested that some of its items be made stricter. For instance, an amendment was introduced that forbids demonstration of not only Nazi symbols but also symbols resembling it so that they can be mixed up. The Russian Nazi practically never use direct Nazi symbols preferring their stylizations. As a result, Barkashov's supporters freely wear Nazi swastikas in the country that defeated fascism. From now on, the law will deprive them of this opportunity.
Unfortunately, not all our amendments have been introduced. We suggested that only courts be entitled to discontinue activities of a public organization (this is the norm for political parties, and it was logical to apply it to public organizations too). The Duma majority was given a regulation to fail this amendment. As a result, public organizations may be dealt with by an official.
Taking into account the considerable improvement of the draft law in the course of the work on it, it is also necessary to remember that it has some dangers. It is an open secret that the practice of "flexible application" may make any law evil. Who will this law hurt? This will depend on the position of the civil society. It is possible to be satisfied with a passive protest calling the law senseless and even harmful. However, it is also possible to use it as a tool for fighting the impotence of the government, which is unable to fight extremists not only in the society but also inside itself.
(Translated by Kirill Frolov)
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