Offered by Dmitri Rogozin and Sergei Shishkarev of the nationalist Rodina (Motherland) parliamentary group, the amendment envisaged five to ten years' conviction with a subsequent ban on holding particular offices for functionaries who unlawfully cede Russian areas to another country. For culprits who hold federal or regional offices, the bill envisaged seven to fifteen years' conviction with property confiscation, and for culprit groups, longer than fifteen years.
The Duma committee for constitutional legislation and state development resolutely disapproved the bill to seal its doom.
The session buried another proposed amendment, which established criminal liability for abused trade union rights. With many absentees, it scored 88 "yes" votes with 58 no's, two abstaining.
Offered by MPs Ischenko and Kulikov, the bill earned harsh disapproval of the Duma legislation committee. Petr Shelisch, second in charge of the committee, highlighted one of its many objections-the acting federal legislation stipulates equal guarantees for the rights and activities of all public organisations, while the bill was granting labour unions an undue preference.
