Photo Credit: http://www.dni.ru

Promoting Patriotism

In a move to root out corruption, the national parliament approved in first reading a bill to ban officials, ministers and their families from having accounts in foreign banks.

The bill is expected to be passed by the end of March.

According to the draft law, any government officials, their spouses and underage children are not allowed to keep foreign accounts or own any foreign securities.

The bill is expected to help lift Russia from its 143rd place out of 182 countries in Transparency International's 2011 Corruption Perceptions Index.

Controversial Rallies Law Mended

The Russian Constitutional Court published a special opinion of justice Vladimir Yaroslavtsev on the controversial rallies law signed into law last year.

According to Yaroslavtsev, the State Duma has not turned to the regional legislatures for comments, rushing the bill through the lower house in record time, which means the law is unconstitutional.

The other judges, however, did not consider this was the reason to declare the law unconstitutional.

Putting a Lid of Capital Flight

On Friday, the State Duma passed in first reading a bill to counter illegal financial transactions, sponsored by the United Russia party.

The draft law targets fly-by-night firms usually used to take funds out of Russia.

The bill has been criticized for giving too much power to the tax authorities.

Foreign Words Persona Non Grata

The Liberal Democratic Party of Russia wants to ban the usage of foreign words in public discourse if there are proper equivalents in the Russian language.

According to the bill, the party also wants to introduce punishment for a violation of the standards of the Russian language.

Among the examples listed by the party are words like ‘diler’ (dealership in Russian), ‘manager’ (the exact equivalent of its original English word), ‘okay’ or ‘wow’.

Individuals would be slapped a 2,500 rouble fine ($80), officials would cough out up to 5,000 roubles while legal entities would have to fork out a staggering 50,000 roubles, or $1,800.

The United Russia holding the majority in the national parliament has come out against the bill.