Ahead World Cup, Putin signs bill over misconduct at sports events

Russian President, Vladimir Putin, signed a bill into law on Monday, stipulating an expansion in the administrative responsibility of misconduct by spectators at official sports events.
The relevant bill was earlier passed in all of the three readings by the Russian parliament’s lower house, the State Duma, and passed by the parliament’s upper chamber, the Federation Council, on April 12, before it was submitted to the president for his final stamp of approval.
The new law, which comes as a set of amendments to the existing norms of the Code on Administrative Regulations, doubles fines for violating previously imposed admission bans on spectators from the sum of 20,000-25,000 rubles ($357-446) up to 40,000-50,000 rubles ($713-890). A detention term of anywhere between 10 and 15 days, remains in force as an alternative to the newly-imposed financial penalties.
Besides the newly-imposed penalties for breaching active attendance bans, the law also stipulates an administrative responsibility “for severe violations of fans’ behaviour during official sports tournaments” and specifies either a fine of 10,000-20,000 rubles ($180-357) or detention of up to 15 days with a subsequent ban on visiting sports events between one and seven years.
The text of the law stipulates that “severe violations of fans’ behavior during official sports tournaments” implies all actions “which pose a threat to security, life and harm to the health of those present at sports events and surrounding vicinities,” as well as all actions, which led to a suspension of a particular sports event.
The new law, signed by Putin on Monday, also stipulates various types of punishments for non-Russian citizens for violating the norms of behavior during sports events.
Foreign guests will now be subjected to a 15-day jail detention and a subsequent deportation from Russia for the acts of misconduct at stadiums.
The issue of fan misconduct during sports matches is in particular focus by the Russian authorities because the country is now undergoing full-swing preparations for the 2017 FIFA Confederations Cup and the 2018 FIFA World Cup.