ICC NOTE: Russia’s recent ‘counter-terror’ law has drawn the ire from almost every facet of both the Russian and foreign governments. As a response to the downing of a Russian airliner in Egypt, Putin and his allies passed a draconian style law to potentially curb radicalism and its affects. Yet instead the law seems to be more focused on maintaining a strong grip upon the Russian people. In a recent article from The Economist, the author lays out various aspects of daily life that will be affected, but they leave out of the more heinous acts which is the criminalizing of evangelism. While it is likely the law was not written with Christianity in mind, the consequences of its passage will be felt among its communities for many years. Unless individuals gain a permit from a recognized organization to publicly evangelize, they will be considered to be in violation of said law. This also extends to people’s homes where they may congregate for worship or Bible study as long as there are no non-believers present.  

7/21/2016 Russia (The Economist) – IT WOULD seem to be a sensible step: following a tragic act of terrorism, a state passes new anti-terrorism laws. Yet in this case, the state in question is Russia, where any expansion of the security services’ purview is cause for concern, and the measures, known as the “Yarovaya Laws”, are so draconian that even Kremlin-friendly forces in parliament balked at voting for them. Human-rights activists have been raising the alarm. The NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden, still in Moscow exile, dubbed it the “Big Brother law”. And Russia’s own telecoms industry has complained that it could put service providers out of business. Nonetheless, Vladimir Putin signed it into law this month, and the provisions will take effect this week. Just what makes the Yarovaya Laws so controversial?

The bill began ostensibly as a response to Islamic State’s (IS) downing of a Russian passenger jet over Egypt last autumn. Irina Yarovaya, a hawkish MP from Vladimir Putin’s ruling United Russia party, introduced sweeping measures to expand the power of the security services. Her initiative mashes together a range of repressive steps under the guise of fighting terrorism. One of the bill’s most controversial provisions makes the “failure to report a crime” into a crime itself. It also stiffens penalties for existing extremism statutes, and extends the list of crimes that minors (14 years or older) can be held accountable for. A second provision targets the digital space, requiring communications providers to store user data (including calls and messages) for at least six months, while making it accessible to the security services; it also gives the government the power to demand the keys to encrypted traffic.

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