Posted on 05/25/2006 1:49:00 PM PDT by b2stealth
The State Duma passed the first reading of amendments to a number of laws to prohibit government officials in public appearances, the media, Internet sites and advertising from mentioning financial indicators in any currency except rubles. Since quoting prices in foreign currencies has been banned since the mid-1990s, “conditional units,” the euphemism that replaced dollars at that time, are the main target of the new amendments. Only the communists opposed the amendments. Discussion of the amendments in the Duma gives hope that the logical contradictions and violations of common sense in the law may be removed before the final reading. Alexander Moskalets, United Russia member and one of the authors of the bill, stated that “Mention of a foreign currency is evidence, as a rule, of underdevelopment. But Russia is far from being such a country. The majority of the population is already aware that one of the most powerful countries in the world stands behind the ruble… The ruble is a political factor because the national currency is a symbol of sovereignty.” Duma member from the Communist Party of the Russian Federation Viktor Tyulkin suggested that bribes accepted in dollars should bear heavier punishment than those taken in rubles. Oleg Smolin, another Party member, called the amendments a battle with the devil's shadow. Duma member Alexander Fomenko doubted that the vertical of power was strong enough yet to prevent Russian bureaucrats from spoiling their native language.
The amendments affect the laws “On the Media,” “On the Protection of Consumers' Rights,” “On the Administration of the Russian Federation” and “On the Status of Members of the Federation Council and State Duma,” as well as Civil Code and Code of Administrative Violations. Fines for violations will range from 20-25 “minimum wages” (a conditional unit currently worth 100 rubles) for advertisers and for price tags, 40-50 minimum wages for government officials speaking in public or in the media and 400-500 minimum wages for legal entities.
The current wording of the law is so all-encompassing as to be unenforceable. It is expected to undergo extensive rewriting before its second reading.
RUSSIA BANS DOLLAR (except in Switzerland)
You can't make this stuff up.
Banning mention of economic indicators in terms of hard currency is a first step in hiding and/or manipulating information about the state of the economy.
The new Putin, same as the old (KGB) Putin.
Yet again Russian leaders' serious ego complex has them pushing another idiotic law onto the citizens...
Is he TRYING to destroy their economy?
>forces use of the Ruble in government
It's not only in government, it bans use of word "dollar" in press, Internet, TV for everybody except companies dealing internationally! (Read the law).
You go! Tell em! It's not just governement transactions or mention of transactions even. It's a law for everyone basically.
What will they use?
>"Russia forces the use of the Ruble in economy.."?
>Either way, the point is that the original headline is
>inflammatory.
The law PUNISHES the use of word "dollar" it DOES NOT rewards the use of "ruble"..
So the correct text is "Russia bans the word "dollar" to force the use of the word Ruble not only in economy but everywhere TV, Newspapers, Internet".
Pooty must love the black market because that's one of the reasons they legalized the dollar in the first place: to get rid of the black market.
I think they also need to ban following words:
corruption
bribe
crime
inflation
poverty
Chechnya
..
>Pooty must love the black market because that's one of the reasons they legalized the dollar in the first place: to get rid of the black market.
True that..
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