19.07.06 Wednesday
By Saying "Dollar" You Are Breaking the Law
By Sergei Dmitriyev The Moscow News
 
Russia's lower house of parliament passed in the second reading a bill, according to which it is forbidden for governmental officials, State Duma deputies, Federation Council members, civil state officials and journalists to use the terms "dollar" and "euro", as well as the names of other foreign currencies during public speeches, in mass media publications, and on the Internet.

The bill says that "when speaking in public, including to the media, members of the government must not use foreign currency terms ... to give information about the cost of goods, work, services, property, the sums of closed deals, budget indexes at any level of the Russian budget system, state and municipal borrowings, or state and municipal debts."

However, the ban envisaged several exceptions, thus softening the legislation. The restriction does not cover the citing of public speeches, documents, and other materials if they are provided with a quotation reference. The bill is invalid if it is necessary, in addition to a ruble estimate, to indicate the equivalent of the sum in foreign currency (conventional money units), or vice versa to indicate foreign currency in accordance with the Russian legislation.

The administrative responsibility for breaking this law is as follows: physical bodies may be fined from 5 to 10 minimum monthly wages (one minimum monthly wage is 100 rubles), officials - from 40 to 50 minimum monthly wages; corporations - from 100 to 200 minimum monthly wages.

The draft law was suggested by Yevgeny Velikhov, a head of the Russian Public Chamber (a new body set up to act as a bridge between the public and the government) and was later backed by the pro-presidential United Russia faction.

Russia's Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin, however, following parliament's first initiatives to promote the national currency, said the government was unlikely to look on the bill favorably, adding that customs statistics and duties in Russia had been fixed in euros and its foreign debt was counted in foreign currency. He criticized the original idea, saying it would be ridiculous to measure global economic matters in rubles. However, MPs defied his remarks.

Still there is hope that the draft law will be reconsidered in the third reading at the fall session.
http://english.mn.ru/english/issue.php?2006-26-15