Sweeping counter-terrorism laws were debated in the Russian Parliament on Wednesday, including proposals that would allow the country to declare itself at war and impose tight restrictions on travel and the media.
Under the plans, Russian television and radio journalists would not be allowed to report on a siege until the situation had been resolved.
The measures are part of a package debated by the Duma, Russia’s lower house of parliament, which has been tasked with drawing up a new anti-terror bill in the wake of the Beslan massacre.
Two-thirds of the Duma’s MPs are members of the United Russia party, which supports the president, Vladimir Putin. This has led some analysts to worry that many of the proposed changes are not related to terrorism, but are part of a Kremlin effort to exert more central control.
It will take months for parliament to receive Kremlin approval for and finalise some of the many and far-reaching laws proposed yesterday.
According to MPs familiar with the drafts and Russian media reports, the planned laws could give the Kremlin the right to declare a ”state of war” in the event of ”a terrorist action representing a threat to national security”.
At present, a state of war, which rescinds many basic civil rights, can be declared only in response to an armed invasion by another country.
Another proposed law, suggested by the pro-Putin nationalist Rodina party, would ban broadcast coverage of a hostage crisis until after the captives had been freed.
A Rodina MP, Alexander Krutov, said: ”This is to avoid the severe psychological impact that terrorist acts have on the population — one of their main aims.”
He said terrorists gained valuable information from the media during sieges, even helping them to escape.
The media have also been the target of comments by the FSB security chief, Nikolai Patrushev, a key confidant of Putin.
”To fight terrorism, the state needs a comprehensive system of measures covering all branches of power: legislative, executive and judicial, and, of course, the mass media,” he told reporters this week.
He has also said that the image of police informers and agents needs to be revamped.
New laws are also being drafted on ”free movement … and registration rules”.
At present, Russians and foreigners have to be registered at a particular address, and re-registered if they move. Some MPs want to tighten the restrictions, limiting internal migration, and allowing police to search someone’s home during a routine document check.
Greater restrictions are also being considered on the purchase of travel tickets. The suicide bombers who brought down two airliners last month bought tickets with minimal documents at the last minute. A vaguely worded resolution passed last night said that ”if necessary, special passport, visa and registration measures must be introduced in individual regions”.
Stricter punishments for terrorists are also being drafted, although on Wednesday the Parliament rejected one of the harsher proposals — to lift the moratorium on the death penalty.
Measures being considered include the confiscation of property belonging to a terrorist’s family, and the criminalisation of the failure to inform the authorities about a terrorist act.
A source in the Duma said it was possible the legislation would include a revamp of the special military forces.
Vladimir Pribylovsky, the head of the Panorama thinktank, said the terrorism laws were ”simply a pretext to realise the reforms that the president and his inner circle have conceived years ago”.
Masha Lipman from the Carnegie Centre in Moscow said the Kremlim usually allowed a series of extreme measures to be floated by ”faceless MPs” so they could ”probe and try” them on public opinion.
”This is the case with the idea to lift the death penalty moratorium. They get to knock it down and look enlightened, liberal and as if they belong in Europe.” – Guardian Unlimited Â