A group of State Duma deputies has submitted to parliament a bill that toughens criminal penalties for the participation and leadership of a foreign nongovernmental organization recognized as “undesirable” in the Russian Federation  .

The authors of the bill proposed that criminal liability for participation in such an organization should arise after a person has committed one administrative offense for a similar act, and immediately for leadership. The current version of Article 284.1 of the Criminal Code of Russia provides that a person can be brought to criminal responsibility after committing two administrative offenses within a year.

The deputies proposed that for participation in the work of an “undesirable” organization, people should be imprisoned for a period of one to four years, and for leadership – for a period of two to six years. Now the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation provides for both the participants and the leaders of the “undesirable” organization the same punishment – from two to six years in prison.

Also, the authors of the bill proposed to remove from Article 284.1 of the Criminal Code of Russia the phrase about the work of an “undesirable” organization “on the territory of the Russian Federation” – thus, responsibility for it will also come for those who participate in the work of the organization abroad, notes MBH Media.

In another bill, the same group of deputies proposed to prohibit Russian citizens and Russian legal entities from participating in the work of “undesirable” organizations around the world.

The deputies also suggested recognizing as “undesirable” any foreign or international non-governmental organizations that acted as intermediaries in conducting monetary transactions against organizations that were already recognized as “undesirable” in Russia.

The authors of these two bills on the evening of May 4 also submitted another bill to the State Duma for consideration, in which they proposed to ban people who worked in extremist organizations or donated money to them from running for the State Duma. Alexei Navalny’s team said the ban threatens more than 200,000 people who sent donations to Navalny’s structures.

(c)MEDUZA 2021