Tag Archives: Duma

Reuters reports: Constitutional changes allowing Vladimir Putin to run for president again in 2024 sailed through Russia’s lower house of parliament on Wednesday, opening the way for him to potentially stay in power until 2036. The 450-seat State Duma, the lower house of parliament, on Wednesday voted in favor of the change, along with other amendments to the constitution, by …

The Hill reports: On a Sunday panel show, a Russian politician said U.S. “intelligence missed it when Russian intelligence stole the president of the United States.” Vyacheslav Nikonov, a member of the Russian parliamentary body, the Duma, made the remarks on the panel show “Sunday Evening with Vladimir Solovyov.” Though the U.S. intelligence community has unequivocally stated that Russian intelligence …

USA Today reports: Russia’s parliament has called for an investigation into U.S. media operating in its country in response to what it says are attacks on Russian media in the U.S, particularly state-funded broadcaster RT News. The State Duma, or lower house of parliament, called on its committee on information policy, information technology and communications to conduct an “audit” of …

The Moscow Times reports: A bill decriminalizing domestic violence has passed its first reading in Russia’s State Duma. Some 368 lawmakers voted in favor of the law, with just one deputy voting against the plans. One other deputy abstained from the vote. The bill would remove the charge of “battery within families” from Russia’s Criminal Code, downgrading it to an …

Via Christianity Today: Christians in Russia won’t be allowed to email their friends an invitation to church or to evangelize in their own homes if Russia’s newest set of surveillance and anti-terrorism laws are enacted. The proposed laws, considered the country’s most restrictive measures in post-Soviet history, place broad limitations on missionary work, including preaching, teaching, and engaging in any …

A committee of Russia’s lower national legislative chamber today rejected a bill that would have fined and/or jailed LGBT citizens for coming out. Radio Free Europe reports: The bill, initiated by lawmakers from the Communist Party, called for a fine of up to 5,000 rubles (about $65) for publicly expressing personal “nontraditional sexual orientation.” According to the draft bill, the …

Russia’s Duma will vote on banning LGBT citizens from coming out on January 19th. Via Gay Star News: Two senior Russian Communist MPs Ivan Nikitchuk [inset] and Nikolai Arefyev have presented a bill calling for people who come out as LGBTI to serve up to 15 days behind bars. Any public displays of affection among gay men will result in jail …

Two Communist Party members of the DUMA have introduced a bill that would criminalize coming out. A note attached to the bill declares that gays were once executed in ancient Greece, so (presumably) they should just be glad that breaking the proposed law would only result in jail time. RT.com reports: Ivan Nikitchuk [inset] and Nikolay Arefyev want to amend …

Paul Cameron, the only American anti-gay activist who rivals Scott Lively for his litany of repulsive lies about LGBT people, has testified before Russia’s Duma. Via Buzzfeed: Russia’s parliament invited an American anti-gay psychologist whose work has been widely discredited to give expert testimony where he suggested that a third of LGBTs support pedophilia, according to a participant in the …

Yesterday we learned that NOM watchdog Fred Karger has reached out to federal officials, asking that they investigate Brian Brown for possibly violating the Logan Act, which forbids citizens from collaborating with foreign governments against the interests of the United States. Five days after Brown’s speech to the Duma, they passed the bill which bans anybody from a country with …

Right Wing Watch reports that at the invitation of Russia’s legislature, NOM president Brian Brown traveled there with a group of far-right French Catholic anti-gay activists to collaborate on the bill that bans gay couples from adopting.  The DUMA passed the bill five days after Brown’s visit. On June 13, 2013, just days after the Russian Duma passed laws banning …

Today the lower chamber of Russia’s legislature passed a national ban on “homosexual propaganda.” Such bans were already in existence is several regions and in the city of St. Petersburg. Towelroad reports that schoolboys attacked and kicked a gay activist as the bill was being considered. The legislation, adopted on June 11, has been criticized by rights defenders as a …

Today the Russian Duma almost unanimously approved the first reading of the national bill to ban “homosexualist propaganda.” The bill was supported by 388 MPs with one vote against and one abstention. The ban was submitted by deputies from the Novosibirsk Region in Siberia, who had earlier introduced similar local regulations. If approved, it would introduce heavy fines for the …

Next month Russia’s legislature will consider adopting a national ban on “gay propaganda” similar to the ones already existing in St. Petersburg and nine other regions. Via press release from the Russia LGBT Network (their English is slightly fractured): The Russian State Duma will consider the first reading of a federal level bill banning so-called “propaganda of homosexualism” on December …