STRASBOURG, March 4 - RAPSI. The Venice Commission is expected to release its opinion Friday or Saturday on a series of controversial amendments made to Russia’s law on public protests last summer, a spokesperson for the Commission told RAPSI Monday.

On the heels of several moths of opposition protests last summer, Russian legislators adopted amendments to a law on public protests increasing fines for protest-related offenses ten-fold, stipulating compulsory community service for those found in violation of the law, and prohibiting the use of masks during protests.

This is the sixth law that the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) has referred to the Venice Commission for its review.

According to the Vienna Commission’s website, as a matter of course – once a piece of legislation has been referred to the Venice Commission, it deploys a working group to advise the given country’s authorities in drafting the law. The working group then formulates an opinion based on its findings of “whether the legislative text meets the democratic standards in its field and on how to improve it on the basis of common experience.” The Vienna Commission then discusses and adopts the working group’s opinion during the plenary session, at which point it is made available to the public.

In this case, the Venice Commission had been waiting to adopt its opinion on the law pending this month’s decision by Russia’s Constitutional Court.

Parties are usually required to supply documentation to be considered by the Venice Commission three weeks in advance in order to provide members with sufficient time to consider all materials.

Kommersant reported Monday that Russia’s Constitutional Court had released a series of special opinions following the release of the court’s primary opinion on the constitutionality of the law earlier this month. If these reports prove true, it is unlikely that these special opinions will be taken into account by the commission due to the three-week deadline, depending on the timing of their release.

Thus the main opinion released on February 14 will certainly prove fodder for the plenary session’s conversation, but any special opinions reportedly released today will have missed that deadline. 

The Vienna Commission is expected to adopt an opinion on the amendments on Friday, although there is some potential that the conversation may be pushed over until Saturday as it is scheduled for late Friday afternoon Strasbourg time.

The Venice Commission is the Council of Europe’s advisory organ charged with providing countries with legal advice on drafting laws that strengthen democracy.