Vedomosti
Damning verdict on Russia’s outdated criminal law
Russia and the United States share the dubious honor of having the largest prison populations in the world. Over the next three years, Russia will spend 159 billion rubles a year on its penitentiary service. Official statistics put the average number of prison inmates at 900,000, so each prisoner costs over 176,000 rubles a year, or 14,500 rubles a month, more than many employees earn in any one month. Add in the costs incurred by agencies working to counter crime – the Interior Ministry, the Prosecutor’s Office and criminal courts – and the figures increase dramatically.
This penitentiary burden on the budget is due to serious shortcomings in criminal law and enforcement. Russian courts mete out punishment, not caring what it costs the state or how adversely it affects the economy and social welfare.
Living standards depend on economic efficiency. In a market economy, it is the small- and medium-sized businessmen that play a key part in prosperity. Their initiative and entrepreneurship contribute not only to their own welfare but also to that of a considerable part of the population. These people take their own risks, and need the full support of both the public and the state. Instead, the state in fact creates many of the problems facing businesspeople. Criminal legislation is overloaded with regulations making entrepreneurs responsible for actions that do no harm to the state, society or even their fellow citizens.
For example, take Article 193 of the Criminal Code, which provides for criminal responsibility for the non-return of foreign currency to Russia. The basic currency laws changed long ago: Russians can now open bank accounts abroad, yet Article 193 is still in the code.
A more important example is Article 171, which stipulates criminal responsibility for those who do business without registration or a license. There is no real harm done either to society or to individuals by this omission. But if you turn a profit without first getting a license, you must serve time, the law says, which is absurd in economic terms.
Article 174.1, which punishes the laundering of money obtained through breaches in license rules, unpaid debts, or unpaid customs, etc., only fuels corruption and damages the economy. This article is applied in Russia to individuals who stand accused of illegal entrepreneurship. Combined with Article 171, Article 174.1 is now a tool corrupt criminal justice practitioners use to elicit bribes, at the same time dealing a severe blow to the Russian economy.
Peculiarities can also be observed in law enforcement. Deals previously found to be in line with the law may subsequently be ruled as violating it.
A group of legal experts and economists have proposed a strategy for updating criminal legislation as it pertains to the economic sphere. Last year it was considered in parliamentary hearings and approved as a basis for improving the legislation. But the strategy has met stiff resistance among law enforcement officials, who are at the front line in the fight against crime.
Nezavisimaya Gazeta
Power vacuum takes South Ossetia to the brink of chaos
Russia is desperately seeking a replacement for South Ossetian President Eduard Kokoity to prevent the largely unrecognized republic from descending into chaos, as sociologists predict. The presidential election is due in November.
Russia recognized South Ossetia’s independence following the Georgian-Russian conflict of August 2008, but the fledgling state now risks sliding into instability as this year’s presidential elections approach, the Caucasus branch of the Moscow-based Modern Politics Foundation warned. Moscow considers the South Ossetian ambassador to Russia Dmitry Medoyev a potential candidate for the post.
Kokoity, who has led South Ossetia for two full five-year terms since 2001, said he would like to see the republic’s prosecutor general, Teimuraz Khugayev, succeed him, but the foundation’s analysts do not back this choice. Kokoity’s popularity has plummeted and voters increasingly see him as discredited, while Khugayev has been in the spotlight of several high-profile scandals, they said.
Vladimir Nesterenko, head of the foundation’s Caucasus branch, also points out the absence of any political opposition in the newly-independent republic. The few opposition leaders who fled to Moscow fearing reprisals are not very popular with South Ossetians now. This lack of competition makes an escalation of tensions inevitable as the November vote draws nearer.
South Ossetia’s Moscow backers are certainly aware of this and are likely to move to consolidate the existing regime, according to several media reports. They claim that South Ossetian government head Vadim Brovtsev will soon be replaced with Vladislav Gasumyanov, member of the Russian Presidential Executive Office responsible for the South Ossetian policy. He could act as a conduit for Moscow’s direct rule over South Ossetia.
Medoyev curtly rejected this scenario. “That is ridiculous,” he said without elaborating. He neither confirmed nor denied he planned to run for president in November. “I don’t know anything about my nomination for the presidency,” he said.
Russian writer and politician Alexander Prokhanov told the media that the government has several scenarios for South Ossetia in the pipes. One of them involves a trade off with Georgia in exchange for the removal of President Mikheil Saakashvili from power: an obscure candidate will win the November election and then quickly persuade the South Ossetian population to rejoin Georgia. Georgian officials do not view this as a realistic option. They do not believe any improvement in relations with Russia or South Ossetia is possible until the current Russian leaders go, while the local opposition adds that Saakashvili must go as well.
Novye Izvestia
Journalists’ murders go unsolved in Russia
The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) released a report yesterday summarizing international efforts to combat attacks on journalists. The report slams measures taken by the authorities in the EU and the United States to protect journalists as insufficient. The CPJ also notes some progress in investigating the murder of journalists in Russia, although attacks continue to take place and often go unpunished.
With 0.127 unsolved murders per 1 million people, Russia has the eighth worst ranking in the CPJ’s Impunity Index. Only Iraq, Somalia, the Philippines, Sri Lanka, Colombia, Afghanistan and Nepal are worse. Russia fell one place since last year’s index – overtaking Mexico. According to the report, only one out of 19 cases where journalists have been murdered has been solved in Russia since 2000.
CPJ representatives have visited Russia over the past three years, pushing for justice. The authorities promise to investigate crimes against journalists thoroughly, but never go beyond mere assurances.
CPJ’s work to get justice for journalists through meeting with high ranking Russian officials is certainly commendable, especially since officials consistently fail to answer questions put by the Russian media, says human rights activist Alexei Simonov. The very existence of this dialogue indicates a slight improvement in the situation, Simonov says, but he does not see any real grounds for optimism as assaults on journalists continue.
Simonov says international organizations advocating journalists’ rights have no real influence over the Russian government. Only decisions taken by the European Parliament, the US Congress or similar bodies that are in a position to deprive them of something or limit their ability to act in some way have any leverage, says Simonov.
CPJ experts did, however, report a positive shift in the protection of journalists’ rights in Russia. Specifically, the report noted the Russian president’s immediate reaction to the brutal beating of journalist Oleg Kashin, and even more importantly the unprecedented solidarity shown by Russian journalists themselves. The report concludes that this suggests the enemies of the free press in Russia can no longer count on people’s indifference.
Pavel Gutionov, chairman of the committee on press freedom and journalists’ rights at Russia’s Union of Journalists, is skeptical about the CPJ report. “I have some reservations about rankings like this as I have seen what happens when the CPJ comes to Russia,” Gutionov said.
“They were received at the highest level and told that most high profile cases had been investigated, something those running the investigations were invited to confirm” explained Gutionov. “But the CPJ does not understand the real situation. For example, immediately after they left, the Beketov assault case was closed, allegedly because it had been solved,” Gutionov continued.
Most importantly, Gutionov believes that merely solving these cases does not guarantee press freedom. He says these foreigners do not understand what is really happening in Russia, and that their latest index has nothing to do with the real life in the country – it is just a list of facts.
RIA Novosti is not responsible for the content of outside sources.
