A new bill liberalizing the Criminal Code will grant freedom to economic criminals if they pay a fine five times more than value of the damage they have caused.
President Dmitry Medvedev submitted a package of bills to the lower house, the State Duma, on Tuesday and met with Justice Minister Alexander Konovalov. The president said the new amendments would bring the law up to date.
"The [economic] crimes in question are those that do not cause any serious threat, and the most important thing is that now there will be an alternative punishment for people who committed them," Konovalov said.
The changes are unlikely to free Russia's highest profile economic criminals, former Yukos owner Mikhail Khodorkovsky and his partner Platon Lebedev. The two are serving their sentences in Siberia for embezzling 218 million tons of oil and laundering over $97 million in revenues. They are due to be set free in 2016, after having their 14 year sentences reduced on appeal last month by one year.
Other amendments to the Criminal Code downgrade use of offensive words and libel from criminal into administrative violations, Konovalov said.
The Justice Ministry has also drafted a bill to set up a separate penitentiary service to oversee the conduct of non-custodial punishment, Konovalov told Medvedev.
The new service will "work on preventing violations of the law and former convicts to settle down and supervise those who received suspended sentences or were set free on parole, he said.
GORKY, June 7 (RIA Novosti)
