Russia’s State Duma discovers ‘foreign-funded protest training camps’
The Russian State Duma committee for investigating foreign interference in Russia’s internal affairs announced that it has discovered “camps” within Russia in which foreign financing is used to train protest organizers, Kommersant reports.
The parliamentarians did not clarify what kind of “camps” they are, or give any indication of where these fifth column training centers are located or how they are financed. However, one commission member, Adalbi Shkhagoshev, did clarify that they had discovered “virtual camps – concentrations of protest ideas on social networks”.
“A person who has been trained in such a center should not, in principle, receive permission to hold a protest,” Shkhagoshev emphasized.
Following extensive research, the MPs offered to draft a bill that would make it possible to prosecute organizers of unsanctioned protests who have been trained in such camps.
A source familiar with the situation said that “subversive organizations” involved in creating camps for training oppositionists are active in Moscow, St. Petersburg, Yekaterinburg, Crimea, Kaliningrad, Omsk and a number of regions of North Caucasus.