Volodya Ashurkov and a group of excellent colleagues have launched an outstanding and much-needed project, "Legal Cleanup."
This project is about the kind of necessary counterpoint to the "positive agenda" that people keep talking about, while also being entirely practical—without the usual empty chatter.
The idea is simple: in today’s Russia, a positive agenda means, only secondarily, passing new and better laws; first and foremost, it means repealing the harmful legislation that prevents the country and society from developing.
Let’s imagine a hypothetical situation: Putin has gone off to join Assad in ruling over Syrians and Turkmens. Fair elections have been held. The State Duma has been filled with sensible forces willing to work for Russia’s benefit. What’s needed is a package of quick decisions everyone agrees on. Clearly, you can’t pass judicial reform overnight—but you can carry out a basic legal cleanup. In three days, you could repeal all this vile nonsense and make life better for millions.
That is exactly why a group of outstanding experts (Sergei Guriev was part of it as well, but had to step down after being appointed Chief Economist of the EBRD) is identifying the parts of the law that should be repealed unconditionally and preparing expert opinions on them, so as to save all of us time and effort in the beautiful Russia of the future.
Ten laws have already been reviewed and recommended for repeal:
"Legal Cleanup" is a genuine positive agenda and an answer to the question, "What are the demands around which you have united?" These are the demands: we want to build a free and prosperous country, and to do that we need to throw out the rotten, infectious junk that stands in our way.