PRESS-RELEASE

MOSCOW, JANUARY 22, 2000

STATE FINANCING OF THE PARTIES: ON THURSDAY, JANUARY 25, THE DAY WHEN THE STATE DUMA WILL EXAMINE THE DRAFT OF THE LAW ON PARTIES - THE ACTION OF THE RADICALS IN OKHOTNY RYAD AGAINST THE STATE BUDGET FINANCING OF THE PARTIES

On Thursday, January 25, the State Duma will examine at first reading the draft of the federal law "On political parties" that stipulates, besides many other provisions, the direct state financing of the parties from the federal budget.

This day, at 9:30 a.m., near the entrance of the building of the State Duma (from the side of Okhotny Ryad), the radicals will carry out an unsanctioned action against the state financing of the parties.

Declaration of Nikolay Khramov, Russian coordinator of the Radical Party:

"We - several activists of the Radical Party - decided to carry out this action of protest against the planned financing of the partyist bureaucracy from the pockets of tax-payers, despite the fact that we didn't submit in accordance with established procedure the notification about this manifestation to the bodies of power. The Council of the Duma decided to introduce the bill into the agenda for January 25, so we hadn't 10 days - minimum term to submit the notification in accordance with bureaucratic Moscow rules.

Despite the fact that the action will be unsanctioned and therefore each of us realizes that he will be made answerable for this, we are nevertheless acting within the framework of the law. The article 18 of the Administrative Offences Code provides that the acts committed in conditions of urgency, i.e. if the damage caused by these acts is substantially less than the damage that is to be averted by them, must not involve an administrative responsibility. Today, when the administration of the president, the Central Election Commission, the government, the majority of Duma's factions united their efforts in order that the state financing of the parties pass the parliament until Russian citizens - voters and tax-payers - come to their senses, in fact we are acting in conditions of urgency, on an emergency basis. So who will be able to declare that the damage caused by a nonviolent action of a dozen activists, though unsanctioned one, is more than the colossal damage that will be caused to the state, to the soc

iety, to the human rights and freedoms if this law is adopted?"

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION:

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