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Alexei Kudrin offers to introduce a more lenient punishment for violations at rallies

Former Finance Minister A.Kudrin has put forward its first legislative initiative

MOSCOW, May 30 (Itar-Tass World Service)

The Committee of Civil Initiatives headed by former Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin has put forward its first legislative initiative, drafting a variant of amendments to the legislation on rallies alternative to the United Russia variant. A Just Russia deputies introduced the amendments, which the Committee of Civil Initiatives developed, in the State Duma.

The RBC daily recalled that the United Russia-initiated bill on higher fines for violations at rallies, which was approved in the first reading on May 22, contains the provision that envisages a fine of 1.5 million roubles. Under the public pressure United Russia introduced an amendment. Proposed fines are expected to be reduced for the second reading and the maximum fine for officials will make 600,000 roubles, 500,000 roubles for juridical persons and up to 300,000 roubles for individuals. Alexei Kudrin offers to make fines even more lenient. He believes that in this case “one should proceed not from the highest fines, but primarily from the average salary in the country.”

He has some questions over the initiatives of the authorities to punish more severely for rallies. “I want all of you to ponder over the fact why such law was not needed for 20 years, why after the Manezhnaya Square disorders (the clashes in December 2010 between the police and the nationalists in Moscow), when the police were attacked, this law was not needed? Why after May 6? It is clear that this law is an attempt to restrict political activities, but not to establish order,” the politician claimed.

A member of the board of the Institute of Modern Development and a member of the Committee of Civil Initiatives, Yevgeny Gontmaher, who is cited by the Kommersant daily, recalled that the committee had already made a statement that the amendments, which the State Duma approved in the first reading, are unacceptable. “The idea popped up that our variant should be offered,” Gontmaher said. He does not doubt that United Russia will enact its own amendments all the same. “But this is a step of the committee that shows we can not only criticize. This is an idea that we will offer our initiatives and alternative bills,” he said.

A Just Russia deputies Ilya Ponomarev and Dmitry Gudkov submitted the amendments of the Committee of Civil Initiatives in the State Duma from themselves. But in the future the committee intends to draft bills on another issue, and various deputies can be its allies in the State Duma, Gontmaher explained.

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