GOVERNANCE AS A COUNTER-TERRORIST OPERATION

Notes on the Russian legislation against terrorism

Lev Levinson,

Human Rights Institute

Submission to the Eminent Jurists Panel in connection with public hearings

on terrorism, counter-terrorism and human rights in Russia

(Moscow, January 2007)

Over the past six years, the Russian law has been modified to suit the purpose of fighting terrorism and extremism. As in many other countries, terrorist threats – virtual as well as real – have been used by the authorities to restrict civil and political rights and liberties and to give unlimited power to the law enforcement agencies.

Each terrorist tragedy – be it the Nord-Ost theater hostage-taking crisis, the terrorist attack in Tushino in 2003, the airplane blasts in August 2004 or the Beslan school siege – triggered complaints that laws are ineffective against terrorism, and eventually led to restrictions of democracy and excessive law enforcement power. The most dramatic example is the Beslan school hostage-taking crisis which was followed by a series of radical changes, such as appointment, rather than election, of governors, transfer to the proportional voting to the State Duma, and the establishment of the Public Chamber (which marked the beginning of attack against independent NGOs). None of the consequences is directly related to terrorism. However, political changes following Beslan demonstrated the degree to which anti-terrorist discourse can influence the Russian legislation.

In general, legislation against terrorism includes, in addition to the special Law on Counteracting Terrorism, a number of provisions in the criminal, criminal procedural, administrative law; they are also integrated in many legal acts in various spheres of regulation. In particular, new legislation adopted in 2006 eliminates many democratic safeguards to accommodate uniformed services engaged in fighting terrorism.