TREASON OF STATE OR STATE OF TREASON?

In Russia, everyone whose actions are “directed against the security of the Russian Federation, including its constitutional order, independence, territorial and state integrity” may soon be accused of treason of the state. The Russian parliament is reviewing the Criminal Code – the amendments were suggested by the government last Friday (December 12). In the current version of the corresponding article on treason of the state in the Russian Criminal Code, only “hostile'' activity aimed at sabotaging “the external security of the Russian Federation” was considered eligible for treason accusations. Human rights activists fear that if the new legal norms are passed, anyone criticising the regime may be accused of espionage or treason – just like it used to be under Joseph Stalin.

Last Friday, the deputies from Vladimir Putin's United Russia party and the so-called Liberal Democratic Party, led by the outspoken Vladimir Zhirinovsky (often nationalistic in his slogans), voted on the final approval of another amendment to the Criminal Code, limiting the power of court juries. The juries from now on will no longer have the power to judge the cases having to do with terrorism, plots against the government, public unrest and – treason of the state and espionage. When the specialized committees in the Russian Duma (parliament) were asked about the reasons why treason of the state and espionage were also included in the list, they gave no substantial reply, noting only that certain jury courts in the Caucasus have acquitted too many people accused in terrorism and therefore undermined the government, writes Russian newspaper Kommersant.

Instead of the juries, the above cases will now be judged by three specialized judges, in dreadful analogy with the 1930's in the Soviet Union , when verdicts were given out by the so-called “threes”.

The texts of the existing laws and the proposed amendments are available here (in Russian).

One of the most provocative lines in the proposed definition of treason of the state is the following:
"... providing financial, material, technical, consulting or other assistance to a foreign state, international or other foreign organization, or the representatives of the latter, in any activity against the security of the Russian Federation, including its constitutional order, independence, territorial and state integrity ,— is subject to a sentence of 12 to 20 years in prison with or without an additional fine of up to 500 thousand roubles or up to three times the annual income of the accused".

Does this mean that if the government of, say, The Netherlands provides funding to host a documentary film festival or a conference in Russia, where as one of the subjects the current problems with, say, the Russian electoral system may be discussed (and electoral system is part of the constitutional order) – the NGOs holding such festival or conference would be accused of treason of the state?

Earlier this year, the Dutch MATRA projects (sponsoring educational programmes, conferences, local government) were already accused of espionage. But then the accusations were published in a newspaper, not issued by the Prosecutor.

Considering how fast the bills on limiting the power of jury courts passed, one may expect little resistance in passing the new bills.

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