Duma commission to look into centers training leaders of unsanctioned protests
MOSCOW. Nov 27 (Interfax) - The State Duma's commission investigating interference in Russian internal affairs will in the coming period be focused on centers which are funded from abroad and are training leaders of unsanctioned protests, commission head Vasily Piskaryov told the press on Wednesday.
"We do not want such activity as the training of leaders of unsanctioned, illegal political actions to be happening in our country," Piskaryov said.
"It is not good that leaders of illegal political actions, such as unsanctioned rallies, confrontation between young people and law enforcement agencies, and incitement to resistance, are being trained with foreign money," he said.
"We will be looking into this," Piskaryov said.
"We are planning to make a legislative initiative which will curb attempts at illegal actions of this sort. This is normal; it's ensuring the security of our citizens," he said.
The newspaper Kommersant said in November that members of the State Duma's commission investigating interference in Russian internal affairs have found "camps" funded from abroad and training protest leaders in a number of Russian regions and called for endorsing criminal liability for those who were trained in such camps and later organized protests. "The deputies did not say what exactly those camps were and where they were located. According to commission member Adalbi Shkhagoshev, these are 'virtual camps concentrating protest sentiments on the social media'," the newspaper said.