Yarovaya Law

The Yarovaya Law (rus. Закон Яровой) refers to a pair of Russian federal bills, 374-FZ and 375-FZ, passed in 2016.[1] The bills amend a pre-existing counter-terrorism law and separate laws regulating additional counter-terror and public safety measures. It is known to the public under the last name of one of its creators—Irina Yarovaya.

Among the amendments included an expansion of authority for law enforcement agencies, new requirements for data collection and cryptographic backdoors in the telecommunications industry, and increased regulation of evangelism, including a ban on the performance of "missionary activities" in non-religious settings.

Legislative history

In April 2016 Irina Yarovaya, together with Aleksei Pushkov, and Nadezhda Gerasimova and senator Victor Ozerov introduced a project of legislation that would toughen penalties for extremism and terrorism.[2] On 13 May 2016 the law passed after the first reading.[3] Prior to that it had received support from the vice-president's cabinet. On 7 July it was signed by the President of Russia, Vladimir Putin.

Most of the law's amendments came into effect on 20 July 2016.[4] Amendments that require telecom operators to store recordings of phone conversations, text messages and users' internet traffic up to 6 months were announced to come into place on 1 July 2018; however, senator Anton Belyakov has submitted a proposal to move the regulations' start date to 2023, because of the extreme amount of data storage technology needed to make fulfilling the requirements possible.[5]

Content

Surveillance and penal provisions

Yarovaya Law's amendments include lengthening of prison terms for a number of criminal activities, introduction of new reasons to deny entry or departure to and from Russia, a requirement for telecom providers to store all metadata about phone calls and text messages from 6 months to 3 years in the interests of the security services, requiring email and messaging service providers to have cryptographic backdoors, and introduction of criminal liability for failure to report to law enforcement authorities that someone else "has been planning, is perpetrating, or has perpetrated" terrorist activity.[6][7]

Anti-evangelism provisions

The amendments also include new restrictions on evangelism and missionary work.[8] The amendments add a new provision to Russia's Religion Law, stating that "missionary activity" may only be performed "without hindrance" at churches and other religious sites designated by the chapter, and that it is expressly forbidden to perform missionary activities in private residences. "Missionary activity" is defined as "the activity of a religious association, aimed at disseminating information about its beliefs among people who are not participants (members, followers) in that religious association, with the purpose of involving these people as participants (members, followers). It is carried out directly by religious associations or by citizens and/or legal entities authorised by them, publicly, with the help of the media, the internet or other lawful means."[9] Missionary activities may not be used to pursue violations of public safety, "the motivation of citizens to refuse to fulfil their civic duties as established by law and to commit other illegal acts", suicide, or the refusal of medical treatment on religious grounds as aims.[9]

Missionary activities may only be performed by authorized members of registered religious groups and organizations. A group becomes ineligible to perform missionary activities if they have been banned under a court order for practicing extremism or terrorism, or have been liquidated. Foreign missionaries may only perform missionary activities after registering for a permit from a recognized religious organization.[9][10][11][12] Citizens are also required to report unauthorized religious activity to the government, or face fines.[10]

Implementation

Surveillance provisions

Because of unprecedented data storage requirements, implementation of the law has been described as impossible and extremely expensive.[13][14] Russian Post estimated that the implementation of the law would cost the organization 500 billion rubles (7.7 billion USD as of August 2016) for initial purchases of equipment and 100 billion rubles (1.5 billion USD) yearly.[15][16] Implementation of the law by other delivery and freight services was estimated to cost around 180 billion rubles, which is projected to cause 30–40% drop in online number of purchases.[17] Cell service operators will need 2.2 trillion rubles to comply, which will cause a two- or threefold rise in the cost of mobile services for the consumer.[15] Edward Snowden estimated the combined cost of implementation to be 33 billion dollars and predicted that the overall security levels will be unaffected, despite giant affiliated costs.[18]

After Putin signed the law, it turned out that equipment that is needed to store all the data is nonexistent not only in Russia, but in the world. Because of that Putin has issued a call for government contacts to Russian companies for the required hardware and software.[19]

Anti-evangelism provisions

A number of missionaries have been subject to arrest for violating the law and, upon conviction, have been fined. Donald and Ruth Ossewaarde, independent missionaries working in Oryol, were fined 40,000 rubles (around $700), prompting the couple to leave the country; Sergei Zhuravlyov, a Ukrainian Reformed Orthodox Church of Christ representative, was arrested for engaging in preaching in St. Petersburg; and Ebenezer Tuah of Ghana, the leader of the Christ Embassy church, was arrested and fined 50,000 rubles for conducting baptisms at a sanatorium.[20]

On 9 July 2016, Jim Mulcahy, a 72-year-old American pastor who is the Eastern European coordinator for the U.S.-based Metropolitan Community Church, was arrested and deported under the prohibition of missionary activities at non-religious sites, after advertising and holding a "tea party" in Samara with an LGBT group. Authorities had targeted Mulcahy under suspicions that he was planning to organize a same-sex wedding.[10][21][22]

Criticism and protests

The legislation project has received negative expert opinions from the Human Rights Council under the President of the Russian Federation on 20 April 2016. and a special expert group "Telecom and IT" under the Russian Government. The Russian largest telecom and internet companies expressed their concerns regarding negative impacts this law may have on telecommunication and internet industries in particular and the Russian economy on the whole. A change.org petition to completely cancel Yarovaya's Law collected over 600,000 signatures.[23] Russian Public Initiative petition has been signed more than 100,000 times.[24] A number of protests were organized in cities like Novosibirsk, Yekaterinburg, Ufa, Kazan and Volgograd.[25] A 9 August protest in Moscow has seen over 2,000 participants.[26]

The anti-evangelism provisions of the legislation prompted an outcry of concern and opposition from Russia's Protestant minority, which makes up about 1% of Russia's population.[11] According to experts, the law is likely to be interpreted in a way so as to block churches other than the Russian Orthodox Church was evangelizing to ethnic Russians.[11]

References

  1. ↑ http://www.garant.ru/news/782190/
  2. ↑ "Законопроект № 1039149-6" (in Russian). Retrieved 10 August 2016.
  3. ↑ "(первое чтение) О проекте федерального закона № 1039101-6 "О внесении изменений в Уголовный кодекс Российской Федерации и Уголовно-процессуальный кодекс Российской Федерации в части установления дополнительных мер противодействия терроризму и обеспечения общественной безопасности" – Система анализа результатов голосований на заседаниях Государственной Думы". vote.duma.gov.ru (in Russian). Retrieved 2016-08-10.
  4. ↑ "Под закон Яровой подпадают все облачные сервисы и интернет-магазины | Rusbase" (in Russian). Retrieved 2016-08-10.
  5. ↑ "В Совете Федерации предложили перенести вступление в силу "пакета Яровой" на 2023 год" (in Russian). Retrieved 2016-08-10.
  6. ↑ "Draconian Law Rammed Through Russian Parliament". Human Rights Watch. 2016-06-23. Retrieved 2016-08-10.
  7. ↑ Самохина, Софья; Самохина, Софья. "Борьбу Ирины Яровой с терроризмом подвергли критике". Газета "Коммерсантъ" (in Russian) (82). p. 3. Retrieved 2016-08-10.
  8. ↑ "Thousands Fasting After Russian President Putin Signs Law Banning Evangelism Outside of Churches". Christian Post. Retrieved 18 September 2016.
  9. 1 2 3 "RUSSIA: Putin signs sharing beliefs, "extremism", punishments". Forum 18. Retrieved 18 September 2016.
  10. 1 2 3 "Russia's Newest Law: No Evangelizing Outside of Church". Christianity Today. Retrieved 17 September 2016.
  11. 1 2 3 "Russia's Ban on Evangelism Is Now in Effect". Christianity Today. Retrieved 17 September 2016.
  12. ↑ "Russia's new 'big brother law' has Christians, Muslims and Jews fearing for their religious freedom". Deseret News. Retrieved 17 September 2016.
  13. ↑ "Дорогой, неэффективный, нарушающий права граждан". Vedomosti (in Russian). 2016-06-28. Retrieved 2016-08-10.
  14. ↑ "Russia Asks For The Impossible With Its New Surveillance Laws". 2016-07-19. Retrieved 2016-08-10.
  15. 1 2 ""Почта России" оценила исполнение "закона Яровой" в полтриллиона рублей" (in Russian). Retrieved 2016-08-10.
  16. ↑ ""Почте России" придется потратить 500 млрд рублей на исполнение "закона Яровой"". www.forbes.ru. Retrieved 2016-08-10.
  17. ↑ "Закон Яровой может стоить логистическим компаниям 180 млрд рублей". 2016-07-12. Retrieved 2016-08-10.
  18. ↑ Khrennikov, Ilya. "Putin's 'Big Brother' Surveillance Law Criticized by Snowden". Bloomberg.com. Retrieved 2016-08-10.
  19. ↑ "Достаточного количества оборудования для исполнения "закона Яровой" нет даже за рубежом, сообщили в МЭР". Retrieved 2016-08-10.
  20. ↑ Mark Woods, US missionary's work ended by Russia's anti-evangelism law, Christian Today (September 2, 2016).
  21. ↑ Zavadski, Katie. "Russia Was So Afraid of Gay Marriage, It Kicked Out This Priest". The Daily Beast. Retrieved 17 September 2016.
  22. ↑ Levi Bridges  (26 July 2016). "American pastor expelled from Russia in LGBT case". Washington Post.
  23. ↑ "Петицию против "закона Яровой" за четыре дня подписали 500 000 человек | MacDigger.ru – новости из мира Apple". www.macdigger.ru. Retrieved 2016-08-10.
  24. ↑ "РОИ :: Отменить "закон Яровой"". www.roi.ru. Retrieved 2016-08-10.
  25. ↑ "В российских городах прошли акции против антитеррористического "пакета Яровой"". Retrieved 2016-08-10.
  26. ↑ "В Москве на митинг против "пакета Яровой" пришли около двух тысяч человек". Retrieved 2016-08-10.
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