The lower house of the Russian parliament – the State Duma – gave first-reading approval to the draft bill “On Countering Terrorism” on Friday, 17 December. (21-DEC-04)
The bill, harshly criticized by liberal politicians and rights activists, calls for the introduction of a regime of terror alerts, in addition to an emergency situation regime and a regime of counter-terrorist operations enforceable under the current anti-terror legislation.
The terrors alert regime would be enforced across the country “upon receipt of data on the possible preparation…of a terrorist act and in circumstances where such data cannot be verified”. Thus, any time the country´s security services think that the threat of a terrorist attack has increased; they will have the legal right to demand “a terror alert regime”.
Such a regime, according to the draft, could be declared at the request of security agencies either in certain areas or throughout the whole country. For citizens that will mean increased security measures, a ban on holding assemblies, meetings and other public events, more frequent ID checks, restrictions of movement of citizens and transport in the streets, and heightened security at environmentally hazardous production facilities.
As for the regime of counter-terrorist operations, it will effectively mean an absolute ban on the receipt and dissemination of information.
The State Duma passed the bill on Friday by 385 votes to 47 with 1 abstention. The bill still needs to pass two more readings in the lower house before being sent to the Federation Council.
