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Duma Hands Sports Fans the Flag
A draft law will be introduced into the Russian State Duma today to allow Russians to use the national flag for “unofficial purposes.” The bill originated with the United Russia Party, which discovered that soccer fans are breaking the law when they wave the Russian flag in stadiums and on the street and paint their faces with the tricolor, which can be construed as its desecration. Current legislation allows for the use of the flag only in official contexts. Therefore, chairman of the Duma Committee on Constitutional Legislation Vladimir Pligin and chairman of the Committee on Civil Legislation Pavel Krasheninnikov have proposed amendments to the constitutional law “On the State Flag of the Russian Federation.”
The law envisages raising the flag over buildings in which bodies of state authority and local self-government are housed. It is to be the ensign of ships registered in the Russian Federation. Public organizations and parties also have the right to display the flag in their offices, and the flag can be raised in ceremonies, even at family celebrations.
Lawyer and Public Chamber member Genrik Reznik told Kommersant that the new amendments are not necessary. “Only idiots could press charges against fans waving the flag,” he noted. The Criminal Code, he observed, clearly states that “an activity with the formal features of a crime but by its character absolutely does not pose any danger to society is not a crime.” He would prefer to see the legislators think harder about what constitutes desecration of the flag.
www.kommersant.com
All the Article in Russian as of June 25, 2008
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