{"id":92392,"date":"2012-04-02T09:48:35","date_gmt":"2012-04-02T09:48:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/uncut.indexoncensorship.org\/?p=4361"},"modified":"2012-04-02T09:48:35","modified_gmt":"2012-04-02T09:48:35","slug":"new-anti-extremism-legislation-threatens-kremlin-critics","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.indexoncensorship.org\/newsite02may\/?p=92392","title":{"rendered":"New anti-extremism legislation threatens Kremlin critics"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The Federation Council of Russia has passed anti-extremism legislation which rights activists consider threatening to Kremlin\u2019s public critics. It <a title=\"Ria Novosti: Russian \u2018Extremists\u2019 Banned from Working with Children\" href=\"http:\/\/en.ria.ru\/society\/20120323\/172354062.html\" target=\"_blank\">prohibits<\/a> people who were charged with extremism to work with children in such fields as education, medical care, social security, sports and recreation.<\/p>\n<p>According to lawmakers, the new legislation aims to protect children from radicalisation. But human rights activists and a number of trade union leaders have expressed their concerns over such law: together with <a title=\"UNCUT: Is drug legislation being used to silence opposition activists?\" href=\"http:\/\/uncut.indexoncensorship.org\/2011\/12\/drug-legislation-used-to-silence-opposition-activists\/\" target=\"_blank\">drug<\/a> and <a title=\"UNCUT: Russia: \u201cDefamation suits a key factor in suppressing free speech as long as Vladimir Putin rules the country\u201d\" href=\"http:\/\/uncut.indexoncensorship.org\/2011\/12\/russia-defamation-suppressing-free-speech-putin-russia\/\" target=\"_blank\">defamation legislation<\/a>, anti-extremism laws in Russia are often used against Kremlin critics.<\/p>\n<p>The term \u201cextremism\u201d is defined vaguely in Russian law, making it easy for judges to condemn innocent people. For example, if a person publicly criticises police for dispersal of\u00a0peaceful protesters, he might then be charged with extremism for \u201cincitement to social hatred\u201d according to Russian law.<\/p>\n<p>Another example of anti-extremism law misuse is seen through the prosecution of libraries staff and internet providers for allegedly promoting extremist literature. In practice, some libraries and providers do not have access to information from law enforcement authorities detailing which books are extremist.\u00a0Examples of this were analysed in detail by SOVA Center for information and analysis, who described anti-extremist legislative measures in Russia as\u00a0<a title=\"COBA: Misuse of anti-extremist legislation in Russia in 2011\" href=\"http:\/\/www.sova-center.ru\/misuse\/publications\/2012\/03\/d24014\/#_Toc319846884\" target=\"_blank\">repressive<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Education union \u00a0leader Andrey Demidov called the new legislation an \u201cemployment ban\u201d, explaining that due to the vague definition of extremism and corrupted law enforcement and judicial systems, any teacher who openly criticises the government is likely to be charged on extremism and loose their job forever.<\/p>\n<p>Elections in Russia are mostly held in schools, and most local election commission members are usually teachers. After allegedly fraudulent <a title=\"UNCUT: Hacked websites and fraud mark Russia\u2019s parliamentary elections\" href=\"http:\/\/uncut.indexoncensorship.org\/2011\/12\/elections-russia-reporting-fraud\/\" target=\"_blank\">parliamentary elections<\/a>,\u00a0opposition activists appealed to teachers asking them not to participate in fraud. Many supported that request, which, together with high activity from election monitors, led to Vladimir Putin not winning <a title=\"UNCUT: Putin declared the winner of presidential elections, opposition to hold protests against him\" href=\"http:\/\/uncut.indexoncensorship.org\/2012\/03\/putin-declared-the-winner-of-presidential-elections-opposition-to-hold-protests-against-him\/\" target=\"_blank\">presidential elections<\/a>\u00a0in March in Russia\u2019s \u201ctwo capitals,\u201d Moscow and Saint-Petersburg.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Federation Council of Russia has passed anti-extremism legislation which rights activists consider threatening to Kremlin\u2019s public critics. It prohibits people who were charged with extremism to work with children in such fields as education, medical care, social security, sports and recreation. According to lawmakers, the new legislation aims to protect children from radicalisation. But [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":90,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","_mi_skip_tracking":false},"categories":[15],"tags":[382,59],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.indexoncensorship.org\/newsite02may\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/92392"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.indexoncensorship.org\/newsite02may\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.indexoncensorship.org\/newsite02may\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.indexoncensorship.org\/newsite02may\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/90"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.indexoncensorship.org\/newsite02may\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=92392"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.indexoncensorship.org\/newsite02may\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/92392\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.indexoncensorship.org\/newsite02may\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=92392"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.indexoncensorship.org\/newsite02may\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=92392"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.indexoncensorship.org\/newsite02may\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=92392"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}