RUSSIA IS ABOUT TO PASS SOME REALLY AGGRESSIVE LAWS

Sarah,

Last week I wrote you about Putin's domination of Russian politics.  Let's get more specific.

Now that Putin is starting his third term, he is beginning to pass laws that would serve to protect his authority.  The Duma (Russia’s congress) is set to pass the following pieces of legislation:

- A law that raises the fine for unsanctioned protesting to as much as $9,300

-A law that forces any NGO (a non-governmental organization such as a charity or human rights group) to declare itself a “foreign agent” and submit extensive financial paperwork

-A law that criminalizes libel and allows for enormous fines

-A law that creates a “blacklist” of websites for illegal websites.  Any website appearing on the blacklist will be blocked.  The legislators claim it is for protection of children, but the law is not very well defined.

Further, the laws are very vague.  This gives the people enforcing the laws (Putin’s government) broad discretion as to who they will prosecute.

Many analysts believe Putin is going forward with these laws because using the courts is more effective that using pure force to tackle opposition.

The latest polls put support for Putin around 45%.