MOSCOW. Oct 18 (Interfax) - Legislating a single term for spy devices and tools will help avoid unsubstantiated punishments in future and deter potential wrongdoers, the Public Council at the Federal Security Service (FSB) said.
"Members of the Public Council familiarized themselves with the practice of application of the federal laws amending Article 138.1 of the Russian Federation Criminal Code and Article 20.23 of the Russian Federation Code of Administrative Offenses, which provide a single definition of the term for 'special technical means intended for covertly obtaining information' for the purposes of criminal and administrative court proceedings," the FSB public relations center stated after the meeting on Friday.
The council believes that the enacted changes have "not only ensured an accurate, unequivocal and clear content of said norms, thus guaranteeing the inadmissibility of their application without sufficient grounds, but they have also had a preventive influence on potential violators.
"Even when the bills were still at the stage of public evaluation, the Council insisted on a maximally accurate definition of the legal term 'special technical means intended for covertly obtaining information' because it is not a mere technicality: it could be about real people's lives," the council's chairman Vasily Titov was quoted in the statement as saying.
The FSB took into account the Council's proposals on how to improve the bills, he said.
"The unequivocal and clear definition of 'technical means' strengthened the possibilities to prosecute those who like poking their noses into Russians' private lives the sanctity of which is enshrined in the Constitution, and use various spy gadgets," Titov said.