Chairman of the State Duma on the Investigation of Foreign Interference in Russia’s Internal Affairs Vasilii
Piskarev
Vasily Ivanovich
summarized the results of the work of the Commission during spring
plenary session.
“The Commission has revealed facts of foreign interference in our drug policy and that aim was to increase number of drug addicted persons and that is a direct threat to the demographic situation in our country and destroys traditional moral values,” he said.
“We have revealed numerous facts of interference in Russia’s internal affairs, that included the events that took place last summer and autumn, just before the single voting day, and during the elections, up to spread of the coronavirus and the preparation and voting on amendments to the Constitution. In addition, cases of destructive influence of the media of the Baltic and some other states on the Russian audience have also been revealed. This entire destabilizing campaign of foreign NGOs and media is aimed at escalating panic and protests in our country. We have sent the materials on the revealed facts to the competent authorities, and in addition, we plan to show them at international platforms in the framework of inter-parliamentary cooperation,” stressed the Chairman of the Commission.
“We are in constant contact
with the Chairman of the State Duma Viacheslav Volodin
Vyacheslav Victorovich
The Chairman of the State Duma of the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation of the eighth convocation. Elected in single mandate constituency № 163 (Saratov constituency - Saratov Oblast)
, and his support is very
important for us, especially in legislative activities. I am convinced that the work of the Commission should include not only statements and revelation of the facts of foreign interference in our internal affairs, but also the adoption of laws that will protect the sovereignty, ensure the security of the country and the peaceful life of our citizens”, emphasized Vasilii Piskarev.
He gave an example of results of Commission’s investigations, a package of bills that had been prepared by members of the Committee on Security and Corruption Control.
Two bills have already been introduced to the State Duma in July. One of them proposes to establish criminal liability for encouragements to consume drugs, psychotropic substances or their analogues in the Internet. The other one provides for the operational restriction of access to information containing support or justification for extremist or terrorist activities.
Vasilii Piskarev also said that five more bills will be submitted to the State Duma during the autumn plenary session. In addition, he noted that the Commission is actively cooperating with competent authorities, including the Ministries of Foreign Affairs and Justice, the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia, Federal Security Service, the Prosecutor General’s Office and Roskomnadzor. The Commission had sent more than 50 appeals to the competent authorities and the necessary measures had been taken against violators of Russian law. In particular, “Sever.Realities”, a regional project of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, was included by the Ministry of Justice in the register of foreign media agents, and Roskomnadzor repeatedly blocked web pages containing inappropriate information. On a number of media resources such as Meduza, MBK-Media, BBC News Russian, the Commission still has questions, and monitoring of foreign publications will be continued. In addition, the Commission insists on the strict observance by foreign media of the requirements for mandatory marking of their publications. “Our citizens should know that information presented to the Russian audience, whether it includes texts or audiovisual products, is provided by the media that act as foreign agents in our country and are financed from abroad. All these requirements do not contradict international practice and do not violate freedom of speech, but only make the work of such media more transparent,” stressed the Chairman of the Commission.
Vasilii Piskarev thanked the Ministry of Foreign Affairs for constructive cooperation and recalled the recent events of demonstration of the LGBT community flags by the embassies of a number of foreign states and statements of the heads of diplomatic missions. The Commission stressed that those events took place during the voting on amendments to the Russian Constitution on inclusion the provisions on protection and preservation of traditional family values.
“The Ministry of Foreign Affairs responded promptly to our appeal by sending protest notes to the embassies of the United States, United Kingdom and Canada, and stressed that their actions violated the provisions of the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations and the national legislation of the Russian Federation,” the parliamentarian said.
“The Commission continues its work and intends to pay special attention to attempts of interference in the internal affairs of our country related to the upcoming regional elections that will be held on 13 September,” concluded Vasilii Piskarev.
