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Putin to decide on anti-terror package of laws after upper house approval

The Kremlin says the president is familiar with critical remarks on the package
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov  Mikhail Metzel/TASS
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov
© Mikhail Metzel/TASS

MOSCOW, June 29. /TASS/. Russian President Vladimir Putin is familiar with critical remarks on the anti-terror package of laws and will make a final decision when he receives the document for signing after its approval by the Federation Council, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Wednesday.

‘We know about other views on the bill, about specific remarks made by communications experts and public organizations. They are being studied. A decision will be made by the president when he receives the document for signature," Peskov said, commenting on the bill, which caused heated debates in society and discontent among communications companies and some public organizations and is currently being discussed in the Federation Council, the upper house of Russia’s parliament.

When asked if Putin might veto the anti-terror bill, the Kremlin spokesman said the head of the Russian state had the constitutional "right to sign or not to sign it."

At the same time, it can’t be said that the anti-terror package of bills was developed with disregard of other views and without public discussions, the Kremlin spokesman noted.

"The president is familiar with the basic parameters of the bill and he is familiar with the process of the discussion and he is familiar with those considerations that were introduced into this bill in the course of discussions," the presidential spokesman said.

"You can’t say that this bill was prepared with disregard of other views. After all, consultations were held and amendments were introduced to take into account the opinions of representatives of other sectors," Peskov said.

Commenting on the media reports that representatives of the Republic of Tatarstan requested to block the bill because it allegedly violated the rights of the Muslim community, the Kremlin spokesman said it was necessary to look into how substantiated these remarks and fears were.

"We know that we have frequently been confronted with situations in the past four years when particular bills caused fears and quite stormy emotional public response. At the same time, in the course of their implementation, we already didn’t see such reaction and many fears turned out to be unfounded. And we should also take this into account," the Kremlin spokesman said.