Vladimir Putin during a meeting of the Human Rights Council person at a distance. Photo: Kremlin press service
The instructions given by him following the meeting with the HRC on December 9, 2021 have been published on the President’s website. In particular, the Ministry of Justice, together with the Prosecutor General's Office and the HRC, was instructed to analyze the legislation on regulating the activities of NGOs that perform the functions of a «foreign agent» and the practice of its application, including in terms of deleting «foreign agents» from the register. A similar instruction, but with the involvement of Roskomnadzor and the Union of Journalists of Russia, was given in relation to the legislation on the activities of the media, performing the functions of a «foreign agent».
Experts from the human rights environment and some members of the Human Rights Council advocate the complete abolition of the legislation on «foreign agents» ”, which, contrary to the conviction of the president, has no analogues in the world, but they are ready to work on amendments to the current law while it is in effect.
The president recommended that the Chambers of the Federal Assembly consider “a draft law clarifying the concept of “torture” in accordance with the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (UN General Assembly Resolution of December 10, 1984) and establishing increased responsibility for committing by representatives of the authorities a criminally punishable act with the use of torture.”
This wording is noticeably different from the order following the results of the presidential press conference, published on January 6: if there the Ministry of Justice and the Prosecutor General’s Office were vaguely pointed out to methods of influence”, then things are called by their proper names. Since the instructions were given directly to the chambers of the Federal Assembly, where on December 11 a draft law on torture was introduced in a very mild version and without a separate article on liability for them being introduced into the Criminal Code (see No. 8 of January 26), we can conclude that the President does not arranged and human rights activists have a chance to make the future law on torture more precise and strict by the second reading.