Poroshenko awarded orders to deputies who voted for dictatorial laws

For the Constitution Day, President of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko awarded State awards to People’s Deputy Oleksandr Hereha and Chernihiv Mayor Vladyslav Atroshenko, who voted for the laws of January 16.

As reported by journalist Roman Shrike on his Facebook page.

The press service of the Ukrainian President said that the awards were given “for a significant personal contribution to State-building, socio-economic, scientific, technical, cultural and educational development of Ukraine, significant labor achievements and high professionalism”.

Thus, Hereha was awarded Order of Merit of the Second Class and Atroshenko was awarded Order of Merit of the Third Class.

As a reminder, on January 16, 2014, the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine adopted a package of laws with a flagrant violation of the regulations and legislative procedure, without using the Rada system and without discussion by show of hands. These laws restricted the rights of citizens, gave the State authorities greater discretion in punishing participants in protest actions and aimed to criminalize the opposition and civil society.

These laws borrowed the norms of Russian legislation to a certain extent, but some norms were harsher than Russian counterparts. An example of direct borrowing is the concepts introduced in the legislation “extremist activity” and “foreign agent”.

In addition, a number of restrictions were imposed on the mass media outlets.