Mamaev on Morozova's project: "I believe this is an attempt to introduce censorship."

      Recently, Deputy Irina Morozova submitted a draft resolution to the Legislative Assembly proposing amendments to the ethics rules for deputies. It caused a real scandal. Opposition representatives were unhappy that the document prohibits deputies from using expressions that discredit the authorities, as well as from giving instructions to government bodies.

      As we have already written, Morozova did not attend the plenary session of the Legislative Assembly, and the consideration of her project was postponed to a later date. However, Deputy Sergey Mamaev, whose party was the most outraged by this initiative, could not ignore it.

      First of all, Mamaev expressed the opinion that recently more and more measures are being taken to prevent the opposition from saying what it thinks about the authorities. For example, in the winter, the Legislative Assembly obliged him to apologize to the prosecutor's office, which he allegedly unjustly accused of something. Mamaev himself stated that he did nothing of the sort and that the prosecutor's office had no claims against him; however, his colleagues still concluded that there was a violation of the rules of deputy ethics.

      Regarding the new rules developed by Morozova, Mamaev expressed the opinion that this could be a direct encroachment on freedom of speech and an attempt to introduce intra-parliamentary censorship to deprive opposition members of the opportunity to speak the truth. The deputy believes that there may be signs of a violation of the Constitution of the Russian Federation here.

      After three minutes of speaking, Mamaev's microphone was turned off. The Chairman of the Legislative Assembly, Roman Beresnev, said that the three minutes allotted by the regulations had expired and asked how much more time was needed.

      Mamaev was outraged by the frequent changes to the regulations, which previously allowed five minutes for a speech, and ignored this question. He delivered the rest of his speech without a microphone out of principle.

      Finally, the deputy left the podium and sat down. Beresnev asked, "All done? Is the show over? Sergey Pavlinovich, thank you." And he sighed reproachfully: "Such respect for the Legislative Assembly."