Tatarstan takes higher than the lowest – Newspaper Kommersant No. 189 (7390) of 10/12/2022

The Russian government did not support the draft law of the State Council of Tatarstan on the next tightening of anti-drug legislation. However, this did not prevent the authors from submitting the document to the State Duma. The deputies propose to ban the courts from imposing punishment “below the lowest” for crimes related to drug trafficking. According to lawyers, the initiative will not help the fight against drug trafficking. Instead, it “will lead to discrimination and excessive cruelty.”

The State Council of Tatarstan, together with the State Duma deputy from the republic Airat Farrakhov, introduced amendments to the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation to the lower house of parliament. MPs propose to include Art. 228.1 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (illegal production, sale or transfer of narcotic drugs, psychotropic substances or their analogues) to the list of articles for which it is impossible to impose a punishment below the lower limit due to extenuating circumstances.

In the explanatory note, the deputies refer to “an analysis of the operational situation over the past two years.” So, in the correctional institutions of Tatarstan, 29% of convicts (2148 out of 10770 people) are serving sentences for committing various drug crimes (in 2021 there were 23%, 2201 out of 9800 people). In addition, the number of fatal poisonings due to drug use has increased over the past two years (2019 – 69 cases; 2020 – 115; 2021 – 181). The authors are dissatisfied that against such a background “there is a tendency to reduce the share of punishments in the form of a real term of imprisonment due to an increase in the share of probation, corrective (compulsory) labor and fines.”

Earlier, Deputy Chairman of the State Council Committee on Law and Order Alexander Chubarov (“United Russia”) explained: “In some cases, the perpetrators under these articles are pregnant women, mothers of large families, disabled people, minors.” Courts often impose sentences “below the lowest limit” on them, not related to deprivation of liberty at all, “that is why such an initiative was born.” Mr. Chubarov added that it was originally planned to toughen the punishment: “But we carefully looked at the legislation and came to the conclusion that, in principle, there is almost nothing to toughen – there is liability up to life imprisonment.”

Having studied the package of documents attached to the bill, Kommersant found a negative review from the government of the Russian Federation. It says that punishment “below the lowest limit” is assigned in exceptional cases – “in order to implement the principles of justice and humanism.” The experts recalled that the ban on leniency applies to “the most dangerous crimes related to terrorism or organized crime.” Therefore, “an unreasonable expansion of the use of criminal repression measures will lead to an imbalance in the general principles of sentencing.”

Andrei Rylkov Foundation lawyer (helps people with drug addiction, included in the register of foreign agents) Vladimir Zwingli doubts that the initiative of the State Council of Tatarstan will lead to “something positive.” It will definitely not help the fight against professional drug dealers, the expert is sure. He points out that part 1, as well as part 3 and part 4 of Art. 228.1 is most often applied in cases of “domestic distribution”, where a person who uses drugs passes them on to another drug user, usually an acquaintance. “This is not professional large-scale drug trafficking, but simply communication between people who use drugs,” says Mr. Zwingli. So that such people are not sent to prison for ten or more years.

Legal consultant Arseniy Levinson notes that the vast majority of convicts “are not organizers of the drug business, but ordinary pawnbrokers” who are brought to justice for the first time. “The bill will lead to discrimination and excessive cruelty to people who are often victims of the drug business themselves,” he says. “They foolishly got into the drug business, work there for a week, and then sit down for ten years. It won’t help to shut down stores on the dark web.” In his opinion, real terms for first-time convicts “only strengthen the criminal culture”, because after several years in a colony it will be very difficult for a person to integrate into society.

Mr. Levinson also refers to the statistics of the Judicial Department. Until 2012, on average, sales were given no more than eight years. But then they introduced a differentiation of criminal liability, so in recent years, on average, more than ten years have been appointed under the same articles. At the same time, the number of people sentenced to long terms (over ten years) for the sale of drugs on an especially large scale increased “many times over”. The lawyer calls the bill of the State Council of Tatarstan not only “harmful and inhuman”, but also populist, because it was decided to introduce it in the presence of a negative response from the government.

Alexander Chubarov, deputy chairman of the State Council Committee on Law and Order, told Kommersant that the republic’s parliament is “waiting to see how the State Duma will consider it.” The position of the State Council has not changed, despite the negative feedback from the government. “They believe that this article cannot be equated with those articles for which it is impossible to appoint below the lowest limit – terrorism and all that. There are no gross violations in the bill,” Mr. Chubarov emphasized. He believes that the fate of the initiative “will be clear” when the bill is considered by the Council of State Duma legislators.

Anna Vasilyeva; Kirill Antonov, Kazan