Created as a platform for taking citizens’ views into account, the Russian Public Initiative was from the outset less a genuine mechanism for influencing the authorities than an instrument for simulating public participation. It is no coincidence that the platform was launched at the initiative of President Vladimir Putin in 2013 — at a time when the regime was still trying to maintain the illusion that public opinion mattered to it. The following news story makes especially clear how the authorities actually “take citizens’ views into account.”

A petition against Roskomnadzor’s blocking policies is not being published

🌟 In December, my supporters and I submitted an initiative to the official Russian Public Initiative (ROI) portal. We demanded that the blocking of websites and apps be carried out only by court order and that it be fully transparent.

In the petition, we proposed that every blocking decision be published openly, and that an independent commission made up of citizens, lawyers, and technical experts oversee the process and issue recommendations.

⚙ Under the law, the moderation of the petition should have been completed by February 5, but there has still been no clear response.

Technical support has been systematically ignoring our appeals. The first request was returned with formalistic brush-offs; the second and third confirmed that the petition was still under moderation, even though all deadlines had already expired. We submitted yet another follow-up request, but they chose not to respond.

We could easily collect 100,000 signatures needed for federal review — millions of Russians are already tired of website blocks and service slowdowns. Clearly, this initiative threatens no one, but people need it. We will continue to push for its publication.

If the authorities are confident they are right, they have nothing to hide. And when they are afraid even to publish a petition, it is time to openly acknowledge the real problems and take responsibility for their actions.

Source: Yekaterina Duntsova’s Telegram channel: https://t.me/Duntsova/878