Vladimir Putin told lawmakers and senators gathered in St. Petersburg for a meeting of the Legislative Council under the Federal Assembly to stop fixating on punitive legislation alone.
The legislative process should be “systemic” and “creative,” Putin said, not only aimed at “adapting to current challenges and risks.”
“Sometimes those [challenges and risks] are, without question, unprecedented, and it is important to overcome them with dignity. But fixating only on bans, restrictions, measures, developing some new punitive measures for violators — of course, it seems like that’s necessary, you need to protect the interests of consumers in every sense of the word, but fixating only on that is counterproductive,” Putin said.
“Excessive barriers slow development,” he added. “All these are temporary, passing phenomena. But Russia is eternal. And our legislation must be flexible, dynamic, progressive, and oriented toward the future.”
In late April, Sergei Novikov, head of Russia’s Presidential Administration’s department for public projects, said at the “Demographic Turning Point in Russia” conference that Russian society had “grown tired of prohibitive rhetoric.” “It’s no longer possible to keep banning things, especially for people who are planning or considering becoming parents or moving into the category of a large family. They have enough problems as it is,” he said.
On April 14, Bloomberg reported, citing sources, that Russian authorities were reconsidering their approach to internet restrictions out of concern over Vladimir Putin’s falling approval ratings. A source at Forbes Russia confirmed that pressure had “been decided to be eased” by loosening the blocks on Telegram. Telegram, however, remains effectively fully blocked in Russia.
24.1 percent of Russians surveyed do not trust Vladimir Putin, and 23.3 percent disapprove of his performance as president, according to the latest data from the Russian Public Opinion Research Center (VTsIOM). These are the highest figures since the start of the full-scale war. VTsIOM has recorded seven consecutive weeks of declining approval ratings for Vladimir Putin.
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