The Federation Council of Russia has passed anti-extremism legislation which rights activists consider threatening to Kremlin’s 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 human rights activists and a number of trade union leaders have expressed their concerns over such law: together with drug and defamation legislation, anti-extremism laws in Russia are often used against Kremlin critics.
The term “extremism” 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 peaceful protesters, he might then be charged with extremism for “incitement to social hatred” according to Russian law.
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. Examples of this were analysed in detail by SOVA Center for information and analysis, who described anti-extremist legislative measures in Russia as repressive.
Education union leader Andrey Demidov called the new legislation an “employment ban”, 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.
Elections in Russia are mostly held in schools, and most local election commission members are usually teachers. After allegedly fraudulent parliamentary elections, opposition 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 presidential elections in March in Russia’s “two capitals,” Moscow and Saint-Petersburg.
