Many times when I would start to have Russian conversations with learners of Russian, the conversation would quickly slip into discussions about Russian politics. This is only to be cherished, of course; however, the problem is that learners often lack the vocabulary to talk about current events and, therefore, switch back to English. Let’s go over some of the phrases you will see in the media describing current events — specifically, legal initiatives.

The Duma (Государственная дума) — the lower chamber of the Russian Parliament — or legislative assemblies in other countries can принять закон (pass a law). First we need внести законопроект (introduce a bill). Both закон and законопроект may be followed by the preposition о/об (on), for example, Ukrainian authorities are now considering закон об амнистии (an amnesty law for the participants in the protests).

Закон вступает в силу, закон вступил в силу is “the law takes effect/took effect” and may be followed by the date (первого мая) or by с + date in the genitive (с первого мая) to signify “starting on.”

A lot of the laws have to do with introducing something or banning/outlawing something. To introduce is ввести followed by a noun in the accusative case, for example:

Справедливороссы предложили ввести для школьников обязательную пятидневку (Just Russia introduces mandatory five-day school week).

You may be thrown off by пятидневка — a five-day work/school week, as opposed to шестидневка – a six-day school week. A Just Russia (Справедливая Россия) is a political party.

To ban is запретить (literally, to forbid) and is followed by a noun in the accusative case or by a verb in the infinitive.

Англиканская церковь запретила духовенству вступать в однополые браки (Church of England bans gay marriage for clergy).

What if we want to undo what we did? Why, then we need отменить (to cancel):

Договориться о повышении потолка госдолга удалось только после того, как демократы согласились урезать расходы на медицинскую реформу, а республиканцы отказались от требования отменить медицинскую реформу (The debt ceiling could only be raised after the Democrats agreed to cut spending on the healthcare reform, and the Republicans gave up their demand to repeal [literally, cancel] the healthcare reform).

Since we have запретить, we should also have разрешить (to allow).

В Бельгии разрешили эвтаназию детей (Belgium legalizes euthanasia for children)

Here are some of the things that come up frequently in the news after ввести or отменить:

налог – tax

штраф – fine

нулевое промилле – zero blood alcohol content (by mass)

льготы – exemptions/discounts (for certain groups of people)

санкции – sanctions

квоты – quotas

Запретить and разрешить are often followed by these nouns given here in the accusative case:

продажу – the sale (of something)

рекламу – advertisement

ввоз/импорт – import

вывоз/экспорт – export

курение – smoking

The imperfective aspect of the verbs above is запрещать, разрешать, вводить, and отменять. As always, use the perfective for one-time, completed actions and the imperfective for continuous actions.

А как вы думаете, что нужно ввести, а что — отменить в вашей стране? Что нужно разрешить, а что запретить? (What do you think should be introduced or repealed in your country? What should be allowed and what, banned?)

Finally, you might enjoy this report about permitting Russian drivers to take their road tests (сдавать экзамен на водительские права) on an automatic car (на автомате). Driving vocabulary is a topic for a whole other post!