Ukrainian Parliament refuses to strengthen Security Service’s powers in IT area

The Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine has refused to adopt in the first reading a bill to strengthen the responsibility for violations in the field of information security and cyber crimes.

208 MPs voted against the bill. They also twice refused to reconsider the document, Ukrayinska Pravda online newspaper reports.

Then, the Parliament sent the bill to repeated first reading with 243 votes.

During the discussion, a number of lawmakers, particularly, the presenter of the bill, MP from the Batkivshchyna Party faction Andriy Kozhemyakin noted that the adoption of this document would allow special services to investigate crimes in the information field more effectively.

The lawmakers from the Samopomich Party faction harshly opposed the adoption of the document. In particular, its representative Yehor Sobolev said that the document had been put on agenda at night and the MPs had had no time to examine it properly.

He also expressed concern that the law would allow the Security Service to block websites and prevent activity of IT companies.

Sobolev proposed that a representative of the Security Service should come to the Parliament and explain all the circumstances of the new powers.

In turn, Vice Speaker of the Parliament Oksana Syroyid also opposed the adoption of this law, saying it will transform the Ukraine’s Security Service into a punitive body.

Meanwhile, Parliament’s Speaker Andriy Parubiy assured that the document had passed the discussion in the relevant committee and all the necessary procedures. He also expressed his belief that all the risks could be eliminated before the second reading.

In turn, co-author and chairman of the relevant committee Andriy Kozhemyakin said that the bill had been registered in the Parliament not at night, but at 06:15 p.m. on Monday, in compliance with all the regulatory requirements.

However, the MPs refused to pass the document, having sent it to the repeated first reading.