Russia responds to Kremlin Report with 'sovereignty law'
After publication of the United States’ “Kremlin List”, the Russian Federation Council’s Temporary Commission to Prevent Interference in Internal Affairs began work on a bill which will define the concept of “interference in state sovereignty”, Lyudmila Bokova, one of the bill’s authors, told RBC news agency.
“There are many facts of interference by foreign powers in our country’s internal affairs. By putting forward the legislative initiatives, we are proceeding from a position of mirror measures, which are intended to oppose external interference,” Bokova explained.
In her opinion, one of these measures will be to strengthen the concepts of “sovereignty” and “interference in the country’s sovereignty” in the law.
The authors propose to define interference in the country’s internal affairs as “illegal attempts to influence the decisions of the country’s governmental organs not based on international law or international agreements”, explained Boris Nadezhdin, president of the Institute of Regional Projects and Legislation, a participant in the drafting of the document.
An RBC source in the Federation Council said that the bill will be a distinctive response to the Kremlin Report. Another interlocutor with ties to the commission called the bill “revenge for the report and the non-admission of the Russian team to the Olympics”.
According to commission member Senator Oleg Morozov, the topic of the bill’s necessity was brought up virtually immediately after the temporary commission was created.
On January 30, the US Finance Ministry published the non-confidential portion of the Kremlin Report. The published list mentions 114 high-ranking officials and 96 oligarchs believed to have ties to Russian President Vladimir Putin. It is expected that sanctions will later be placed on these individuals.