Meat factory fined for diminishing parliament’s authority
The Antitrust Ministry has imposed the hefty fine of 400 minimum wages on the...
Meat factory fined for diminishing parliament’s authority
The Antitrust Ministry has imposed the hefty fine of 400 minimum wages on the Moscow based Mikoyan meat factory. With a minimum wage currently being 100 roubles this makes the fine about $1200, which, in the committee’s mind, is probably a sufficient punishment for ''diminishing the authority of the State Duma''.
One can only wonder at the kind of damage a meat factory can inflict on the nation’s parliament. Is the people’s trust in their deputies so vulnerable? Apparently it is, as all the factory is accused of is using the phrase ''dinnertime duma'' in their advertising. The word duma means legislative assembly but could also be understood as ‘a thought’ in Old Russian. But the malicious butchers had made themselves perfectly clear by showing the State Duma’s headquarters and even an image of a people’s deputy consuming the factory’s products.
As none of us at Gazeta.Ru International could recall the commercial in question, we can only suggest that the image of a deputy eating must have been inoffensive – logic suggests that a factory seeking greater demand for their product would show a decent person enjoying his meal rather than something outrageous. Nevertheless, the Duma’s staff complained to the committee about the nasty factory. They said that the comparison of the State Duma with the thought of dinnertime diminishes the State Duma’s authority as a chamber of the Russian Federation’s Federal Assembly and therefore contradicts Article 8 of the Russian Law on Advertising.
On the other hand, the size of the fine was not exactly prohibitive and, frankly speaking, it easily fits into an advertising budget. Perhaps in future, rather than portraying deputies eating food, advertisers could use them to promote sleeping pills or martial arts courses, as sleeping or fighting deputies are a common sight in the Duma. Gazeta.Ru
