by Edward Slavsquat via https://edwardslavsquat.substack.com/

The State Duma has dropped legislation that would have created a national QR code system—arguably the most unpopular proposed law in recent Russian history.

The unanimous decision was announced by Chairman of the State Duma Vyacheslav Volodin on his Telegram channel.

Notably, even state media acknowledged the bill was dropped after massive push-back from outraged Russians:

The chairman of the lower house also thanked people for the feedback received while discussing the draft law. Earlier, Volodin’s post relating to the bill on the COVID-19 certificates with QR codes gained 1 mln views and over 700,000 comments. The Russian parliamentarian noted that the deputies received more than 120,000 official appeals concerning this initiative.

“It is essential to listen to each other. This will help to avoid mistakes and hammer out the right decisions based on dialogue,” the State Duma’s chairman emphasized.

Our friends at Katyusha have described this development as a clear victory and evidence that the federal government was “afraid to be left alone, with the people enraged by its actions”—especially as Washington & Co. continue to raise the stakes with the Kremlin.