From: "Macdonald Stainsby" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Reply-To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Date: Thu, 21 Jun 2001 13:44:04 -0700 To: "Leninist International" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Subject: [L-I] Restrictive new party Bill in Russia passed. Russia OKs Political Parties Bill June 21, 2001 By ANNA DOLGOV MOSCOW (AP) - The lower house of Russian parliament gave final approval Thursday to a bill that would sharply limit the number of political parties and make them dependent on government financing. The bill, which liberals say aims at giving the Kremlin control over the nation's political forces, follows a series of recent developments that stoked fears that President Vladimir Putin's administration is seeking to restrict civil liberties. The lower house of parliament, the State Duma, voted 238-164 Thursday to approve the bill. The house, dominated by pro-government moderates, approved the bill in the first two readings earlier this year. In contrast to prolonged debates of the bill earlier this year, the vote Thursday came after only a brief discussion of minor amendments. The bill still needs to be approved by the Federation Council, the upper house of parliament, and be signed by Putin to take effect. Among other measures, the bill strictly curtails private donations and bans funding from foreigners and international organizations. Opponents warn that state funding of political parties would make them subservient to the government. But Putin has said the new rules would lead to the creation of a few, strong parties, replacing the cacophony of the more than 200 organizations Russia now has, most of which exist only on paper. According to the bill, a political party must have at least 10,000 members nationwide and no fewer than 100 members in more than half of Russia's 89 provinces. A party must also regularly field its candidates in elections or risk closure. To receive state financing, a party would have to receive more than 3 percent of the vote in parliamentary elections. Parties would also be required to submit regular financial reports to the government, and critics said the provision would put parties under constant government watch. In other decisions, the Duma voted 223-149 to reject the second reading of a bill that would bar foreigners from owning a controlling interest in Russian media. The bill, which now has to come up for more consultations, received initial approval this spring. The prohibitive bill followed the approval last year of the Information Security Doctrine, a policy document drafted by the presidential Security Council and signed by Putin. The doctrine warned of ``information weapons'' allegedly used against Russia by foreign powers and called for tighter controls over media, in language reminiscent of Soviet times. ------------------------------------------- Macdonald Stainsby Rad-Green List: Radical anti-capitalist environmental discussion. http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/listinfo/rad-green ---- Leninist-International: Building bridges in the tradition of V.I. Lenin. http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/listinfo/leninist-international ---- In the contradiction lies the hope. --Bertholt Brecht _________________________________________________ KOMINFORM P.O. Box 66 00841 Helsinki Phone +358-40-7177941 Fax +358-9-7591081 http://www.kominf.pp.fi General class struggle news: [EMAIL PROTECTED] subscribe mails to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Geopolitical news: [EMAIL PROTECTED] subscribe: [EMAIL PROTECTED] __________________________________________________
