A government working group voting on a petition that originated with an anti-corruption campaign by Alexey Navalny ended up taking no action today due to a lack of a quorum, BBC’s Russian Service reported.

Navalny’s has called on the Russian government to incorporate into its legislation Article 20 of the UN Convention Against Corruption which provides for prosecution of government officials who obtain wealth unlawfully.

His Anti-Corruption Fund organized a petition drive that garnered 100,000 signatures, which under law meant that it could be reviewed by a government body.

It is one of the more bizarre features of Russian life that a hounded political opponent of the Kremlin, who has faced multiple court cases in the last year on the theme of theft and fraud — mirroring the charges he himself has made against Putin cronies like Vladimir Yakovlev, head of Russian Railways — could nevertheless have his proposals reviewed by the government.

But the exercise seemed designed to discredit a chief plank of Navalny’s popular program.

After a three-hour discussion, the working group found that only 14 members out of the 35 were present, insufficient to have a vote. They tabled the vote to the next session.

Rubanov’s home was recently searched in connection with an investigation of an “art theft” case which authorities have been attempting to pin on Navalny.

Ivan Pavlov, an attorney and member of the government’s working group said that the presidential administration, the Interior Ministry and the Justice Ministry opposed the legislation. (And that’s understandable, as all these bodies have officials in them who appear to live beyond their means.)

Officials argued that the UN convention does not make domestic legislation mandatory for signatories, but only that it was recommended.

Despite the fact that the working group is part of the “Open Government” project, the meeting was closed, and Navalny, author of the proposal was not admitted. Officials said he was “under arrest,” although Navalny has pointed out that his continued house arrest is unlawful, as he was already given a suspended sentence, and under Russian law, house arrest can be used for pre-trial restraint but not as a form of punishment.

During the debate about the proposed legislation, a number of points were made by establishment liberals who represented an older style of dissent that stressed human rights and due process in struggling for the rule of law against a lawless state, contrasting with the newer style of Navalny’s populist anti-corruption movement that harnesses the outrage of ordinary people suffering economic difficulties against wealthy bureaucrats.

Mikhail Fedotov, head of the Presidential Human Rights Council opposed the anti-corruption legislation since he believed that it would create more “massive repressions” as the government could unleash crackdowns and would “pave the way for a new 1937,” the height of Stalin’s purges. Tamara Morshchakova, a judge of the Constitutional Court of Russia also said that “the elements of the crime are not defined” and could lead to more abuse of the law.

“It’s not even 1937, but some kind of inquisition,” said Anatoly Kovler, a former judge at the European Court of Human Rights. He believed that the inclusion of any law requiring officials to report on the wealth of their adult children was a direct interference by the state in private life. Russians have been indignant to see the children of high officials studying abroad in expensive colleges and sailing yachts.

Igor Zubov, deputy interior minister, turned in the most quotable quote today with his pronouncement. “All color revolutions in all countries began with the slogan of struggle against corruption,” implying that combating graft would mean regime change.

Yelena Pamfilova, vice president of Transparency International in Russia, said that the Ministry of Economic Development had reported the amount of business corruption in Russia in 2013 as 1.93 trillion rubles ($29 billion). This money should have appeared in the income taxes of officials, but “we didn’t see it,” she said. Kirill Kabanov, president of the national anti-corruption committee, advocated increasing the penalties for embezzlement of state funds under an already-existing draft law, rather than Navalny’s proposal for the “unlawful enrichment” legislation.

Both the Communist Party and Just Russia supported legislation to ratify the legislation. The communists gathered 115,000 signatures in 2013, but their initiative failed to pass. Sergei Mironov, head of Just Russia, said he advocated legislation that would make it possible to confiscate property from officials and their families. In the Russian context, that’s the sort of concept that many feel will be abused further than it already is.