The President wrote that the law is aimed at ensuring the main organisational and legal conditions for holding public events and creating guarantees of the related constitutional rights of citizens throughout the country. The overall concept does not raise any objections.
At the same time, some provisions of the draft law need to be adjusted in line with the provisions of international treaties, specifically Article 11 of the European Convention on the Protection of Human Rights and Main Freedoms, and in line with Russian legislation.
For the purpose of a clear delimitation of the term “assembly of citizens” as a public event from other types of meetings, for example, a meeting of members of an organisation, Article 2 of the draft law should define the concept of “assembly” in the following way: “an assembly is the joint presence of citizens for a collective discussion of publicly significant issues in a place specially assigned or adapted for the purpose”.
To coordinate the provisions of the draft law with the Federal Law On the Main Guarantees of the Rights of the Child in the Russian Federation citizens of the Russian Federation above the age of 16 are to be allowed to organise not only assemblies but also rallies.
A public event may be held in any suitable place inasmuch as it does not threaten the buildings and structures or the security of the participants in the event. The conditions when a public event in certain places may be banned or limited can be specified by federal laws.
Public events should be banned in the following places:
areas adjacent to hazardous production facilities and other facilities whose operation involves special safety rules;
viaducts, railways and land condemned for railways, oil, gas and other pipelines, high-voltage power transmission lines;
areas adjacent to the residences of the President of the Russian Federation, the buildings occupied by courts of law, the grounds and buildings of penitentiary custodial institutions;
border zones unless a special permit has been issued by the authorised border agencies.
The provision setting the time limit for the holding of a public event has to be dropped. The President believes that in the event of picketing, notice must be served no later than three days in advance.
If the text of the notice and other data give grounds for suspecting that the aims of the event and the forms of its holding may run counter to the Constitution or administrative or criminal law, the executive power body or the local government body must promptly deliver a written motivated warning to the organisers that they and other participants in the public event may be prosecuted.