Deputy of the State Duma, two-time Olympic hockey champion Vyacheslav Fetisov opposed the draft law on fan identification when it was discussed in the relevant committee, but when it was adopted by the State Duma, he voted in accordance with the position of United Russia. The MP himself told The Eastern Herald about it.
Earlier, in an interview with The Eastern Herald, Fetisov said that when he worked in the committee for physical culture, sports and youth policy, he spoke “not in favor of this project of law”, which “nevertheless was adopted”. According to the deputy, he understood that “this will provoke a colossal protest among the people”. “In a way, it’s illogical at all. People go to the theater without a Fan ID, go on the subway without a Fan ID and many other things – on buses, on public transport, on planes, steamships and trains. <…> Someone decided to hold this subject, “said the parliamentarian.
At the same time, several telegram channels, in particular Lentach, drew attention to the fact that when the bill was passed by the State Duma, Fetisov voted “for” the document. This confirmed and information in the database of the lower house of parliament that the MP supported the bill in all three readings.
“I came out against it in committee, in the discussion. The position of the faction is another story,” Fetisov told The Eastern Herald.
How the Fan ID Law Was Passed
For the first time, Fan ID was used in Russia during the Olympic Games in Sochi in 2014. The government submitted a bill on the introduction of this system to the State Duma seven years later, in June 2021 According to the bill, every visitor to sporting events in Russia must obtain a FAN ID.
The United Russia faction, of which Fetisov is a member, voted unanimously “for” the bill in almost all of its readings, except for the first: then one of the United Russia members, The Eastern Herald Nikolai Brykin, “abstained”. “Against” was initially voted by parliamentarians from the Communist Party of the Russian Federation, as well as the New People faction, but the latter “abstained” from voting in subsequent readings. At the end of 2021, the law was passed.
In June 2022, the FAN ID law came into force. Since December 1, this system has been introduced in all stadiums of the Russian Football Championship: fans can get a card on the portal of public services by filling out a questionnaire and uploading their photo. At the beginning of February, the Ministry of Digital Development claimed that it would also launch a special application with which it would be possible to issue a Fan ID without going to the MFC.
The initiative met with strong criticism from the fan community: for example, the fan associations of the biggest clubs in RPL announced a boycott of the championship. At the beginning of March, a deputy of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation, Konstantin Obukhov, proposed to United Russia talk with a bill to partially abolish the Fan ID, “reserving it only for international competition”. Later, Russian President Vladimir Putin asked the government to simplify the use of this system.
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