MOSCOW: Russia's upper house yesterday adopted a controversial bill that would greatly increase fines for opposition protesters, hours after the lower house approved the measure in a stormy midnight vote.
The Federation Council passed the bill with 132 in favour, one vote against and one abstention, days ahead of a planned new anti-Kremlin protest on June 12. It now just needs to be signed by President Vladimir Putin to become law.
The rubber-stamp vote in the upper house was in stark contrast to the marathon debate on the bill in the lower house, the State Duma, the previous day which ended in the measure only being passed around midnight. In a highly unusual move, an opposition party in the State Duma had deliberately stalled the passing of the bill by calling for votes on hundreds of amendments. It was finally passed at the third reading by 241-147. The bill, backed by ruling party United Russia, will hike the maximum penalty for organizers of illegal protests to one million rubles ($32,100), while participants could be fined up to 300,000 rubles ($9,000).
Amid huge controversy over what activists condemned as a draconian restriction of civil liberties, the head of the presidential council on human rights, Mikhail Fedotov, said that he would ask Putin to veto the bill.
 FROM: Agence France Presse
Russia passes anti-protest bill
