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Speaker to hold consultations with opposition on bill on fines

The consultations will be held with the leaders of the Communist, Liberal Democratic and A Just Russia factions

MOSCOW, May 17 (Itar-Tass) — The speaker of the Russian State Duma lower house of parliament, Sergei Naryshkin, will hold consultations on Friday with the leaders of three opposition factions on a bill to raise fines for violations during rallies, vice speaker Igor Lebedev told Tass.

The consultations will be held with the leaders of the Communist, Liberal Democratic and A Just Russia factions. This is done to avoid a new parliamentary crisis as the opposition has pledged to make a demarche and leave the session hall during discussions on Friday on the bill under the first reading.

“Naryshkin can find arguments” to convince the opposition to stay, Lebedev believes. He thinks a pledge to bring the maximal penalty down from the announced 1.5 million roubles can become such an argument. “The acceptable figure for us is no more than 100,000 roubles. Then we will stay in the hall,” Lebedev, who is member of the Liberal Democratic Party, said.

Meanwhile the head of the Duma committee for constitutional legislation, Vladimir Pligin, has already said that amendments bringing down the amount of the penalty will be drafted. “They can be decreased by at least 500,000 roubles from the ceiling figure both for private individuals and, accordingly, for legal entities,” he said.