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Oppositn MPs for responsibility for insulting religious feelings

“Nihilism is gaining the ground everywhere,” the deputy head of A Just Russia faction said

MOSCOW, September 24 (Itar-Tass) — Opposition in the State Duma on the whole supports the idea of resuming criminal responsibility for insulting feelings of believers.

“We agree that it is possible to restore a relevant article in the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation,” Sergei Obukhov of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation (CPRF), the deputy chairman of the State Duma Committee for Public Associations and Religious Organizations, told Itar-Tass on Monday. He said, though, that the Communists’ final stand on the amendments would depend on how they are formulated. “Or else, it may so happen that a phrase in some public statement may entail criminal responsibility,” he cautioned. “We agree with restoring the article as an idea but all depends on how it is implemented,” he said.

Vladimir Yemelyanov, the deputy head of A Just Russia faction, said, “The idea is good, but it is necessary to see how it is carried out.” “Nihilism is gaining the ground everywhere,” he noted. “And for Russia, the situation with the Pussy Riot [punk group] and damage done to crosses showed that it [the idea] is relevant to us, too.” “Stricter responsibility would be positive, but it is important to see that it be applied correctly,” said the MP.

Earlier in the day, Sergei Popov, the first deputy head of the State Duma Committee for Public Associations and Religious Organizations, told a meeting of the inter-factional group for the protection of Christian values that the United Russia faction in the State Duma demands restoring the article on responsibility for insulting the feelings believers in the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation. He said a relevant bill was expected to be submitted to the house next week.

He explained that at the moment there was an article on vandalism which worked in a very specific way. “The second part of the article that implies imprisonment doesn’t work at all,” Popov said.

On September 13, Yaroslav Nilov of the LDPR, the head of the relevant committee, said the drafting of the bill was in the offing. Saying that at present there was a “laughable” penalty of 1,000 rubles for the administrative offence [of insulting religious feelings], he noted that the article would envisage punishment depending on the gravity of the offence, ranging from fines to correctional works and compulsory labor to imprisonment.