Angering Anti-Corruption Crusaders, Russia Proposes Banning Access To Land Registry

[Rogue Valley]

Angering Anti-Corruption Crusaders, Russia Proposes Banning Access To Land Registry

One of Russia Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev's many properties.

5/28/19
Russia's Economy Ministry has proposed restricting access to the Unified Land Registry, or EGRN, a database widely used by journalists and anticorruption campaigners to shed light on the lifestyles of the country's elite. The bill, which has been published on the parliament's website, would introduce fines of up to 400,000 rubles for publishing, sharing, or selling information from the registry. It will be debated in parliament following a public appraisal. Critics say the legislation falls in line with attempts to restrict access to information in the wake of several high-profile investigations into official corruption, and note previous attempts by authorities to restrict access to sensitive data capable of revealing the undeclared assets of powerful figures. "This bill strictly regulates the rights of those who possess information to use it freely and distribute it as they wish," Ilya Shumanov, deputy director of Transparency International Russia, told the newspaper Vedomosti, adding that anyone who accesses information that doesn't concern state secrets from a government registry should be allowed to legally distribute it.

The bill essentially rejects transparency and would allow the corrupt Putin regime officials (and corrupt oligarchs) to hide their immense and palatial properties from investigative journalists.

 

[Rexedgar]

Their last revolution is a little more than 100 years back, traded one set of royalty for the elites they have now.

 

[Rexedgar]

Their last revolution is a little more than 100 years back, traded one set of royalty for the elites they have now.

You seem well versed on this part of the world, I enjoy your photos as well. What do you think happens. I understand the retirement age is being upped, this step in the OP as far as keeping the people in the dark; things don’t seem too rosy. What’s the straw that breaks the people from tolerating this? How much financial reward is enough?


Edit: RV this was meant in response to your post, oops!

 

[Rogue Valley]

You seem well versed on this part of the world, I enjoy your photos as well. What do you think happens. I understand the retirement age is being upped, this step in the OP as far as keeping the people in the dark; things don’t seem too rosy. What’s the straw that breaks the people from tolerating this? How much financial reward is enough?

Edit: RV this was meant in response to your post, oops!

Yes, I've lived in this part of the world (Ukraine/Crimea) and have visited Russia more than once. I'm glad you enjoy the daily photos.

I'm not sure exactly what breaks the camel's back so to speak in regards to Russia, but I would speculate that it will be related to privacy rights, poverty, quality of life, corruption, and the huge wealth inequality in Putin's Russia. I tend to think that when the financial crush really begins to adversely affect the educated classes in Moscow and St. Petersburg, revolution will begin to percolate. These are the people that keep Russia running day to day. Putin and the siloviki anticipate this, and have been preparing for it for the past five years with draconian laws regarding free speech, encryption, VPN's etc. Moscow can now disconnect from the www and operate on an internal domestic net behind a global firewall. Police and OMAN forces are now used to using violence to break up protests. There are 300,000 Interior Ministry troops (National Guard) that answer only to Putin. They have been given permission to use live ammunition on protesters.

A working democracy with a robust European standard of living right next door in Ukraine terrifies the Putin regime. One of the prime reasons it wages endless kinetic and hybrid warfare on that country.