<div dir="ltr"><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:verdana,sans-serif"><br></div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:verdana,sans-serif">May 21, 2014<br></div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:verdana,sans-serif">
<a href="http://sustainablepulse.com/2014/05/15/russian-lawmakers-want-impose-criminal-liability-gmo-related-activities/#.U3wPQCg6Q9s"><b>Sustainable Pulse<br></b></a></div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:verdana,sans-serif">
<a href="http://sustainablepulse.com/2014/05/15/russian-lawmakers-want-impose-criminal-liability-gmo-related-activities/#.U3wPQCg6Q9s"><b>
</b></a><h1 class=""><a href="http://sustainablepulse.com/2014/05/15/russian-lawmakers-want-impose-criminal-liability-gmo-related-activities/#.U3wPQCg6Q9s"> </a><span style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif">Russian Lawmakers Want to Impose Criminal Liability for GMO-related Activities</span></h1>
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Posted on <span class=""> May 15 2014 - 10:42am </span>
by <a href="http://sustainablepulse.com/author/henry/" title="
View all posts by Sustainable Pulse">Sustainable Pulse</a></span> </div>
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</span><p><span style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif">Russian lawmakers want to equate GMO-related activities that may harm
human health or even cause death to terrorist acts and impose criminal
liability on producers, sellers and transporters of genetically modified
organisms, the newspaper Izvestia writes in its Thursday issue.</span></p><div class=""><span style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif"><img style="margin-right: 0px;" src="http://sustainablepulse.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/russia-gmos.jpg" class="" alt="russia-gmos" height="236" width="420"></span></div>
<span style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif"></span><span style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif"><strong>Source:</strong> <a href="http://en.itar-tass.com/russia/731689" target="_blank">itar-tass.com</a></span><span style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif"></span><span style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif"></span><span style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif">
</span><p><span style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif">A bill to this effect was submitted to the Russian State Duma lower
parliament house by the Duma agrarian committee and the Liberal
Democratic Party (LDPR) faction, who claimed that the government’s bill
referred to parliament was too mild. The bill’s initiators say liability
for GMO-inflicted harm should be expanded to state and local
self-government officials. Under the bill, criminal responsibility
should be applicable to companies and government officials only, while
individuals should be subject to disciplinary liability.</span></p><span style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif">
</span><p><span style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif">The bill also provides for fines for concealing or deliberate
distortion of information about environmental impacts of GMOs. Thus,
individuals will be punished by a fine ranging from 500 to 1,000 roubles
(14.5-29 U.S. dollars), government officials – by a fine of 1,000-2,000
roubles, and legal entities – by a fine of 10,000-20,000 roubels.</span></p><span style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif">
</span><p><span style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif">Kirill Cherkasov, the first deputy chairman of the State Duma
agrarian committee, said that tough regulation should be imposed in the
area of gene engineering, since imports of GMO-containing products had
increased dramatically after Russia joined the World Trade Organization
(WTO). He said that the State Duma would issue a package of amendments
to the national laws regulating technical and economic aspects of
GMO-related activities by its autumn session.</span></p><br></div></div>