The State Duma considered several novelties to the criminal legislation

The State Duma on Thursday considered several novelties to the criminal law. Residents of the new regions, whose actions before joining the Russian Federation were aimed at protecting the interests of Russia, were removed from criminal responsibility by the deputies. But the punishment for citizens who hand over mobile phones to pre-trial detention centers and colonies, on the contrary, has been toughened. At the same time, the fight against cell phones in the zone, which, according to the authors of the project, became the main source of the “thieves’ common fund”, rallied the lower house, while the rehabilitating amendments caused some controversy.

The bill on the procedure for the application of the Criminal (CC) and Criminal Procedure (CPC) codes in the new territories, Senator Andrey Klishas, ​​as well as deputies Pavel Krasheninnikov and Irina Pankina (all United Russia; ER) was introduced in November 2022, and already in December it was adopted in the first reading.

Among other things project establishes that an act committed on the territory of these regions before September 30, 2022 (that is, before their accession to the Russian Federation) will not be recognized as criminal if it was aimed “to protect the interests of Russia or these subjects.”

The discussion of the document in the second reading began with the fact that Nina Ostanina (KPRF), following the Legal Department of the Duma, drew attention to the term “criminal proceedings” used in the draft (instead of “cases” or “persecutions” used in the Code of Criminal Procedure). “What explains the Committee’s stubborn unwillingness to bring your bill into line with the current Criminal Code?” the deputy wondered. Irina Pankina, who presented the project, called the term chosen by the authors “more universal”.

Aleksey Kurinny (KPRF) questioned another rule, according to which “an act is not criminally punishable if it was aimed at protecting the interests of the Russian Federation, the DPR, the LPR or the legally protected interests of citizens or organizations” of new regions. “The wording does not satisfy the requirements of absolute clarity and unambiguity of the criminal law and creates the conditions for broad and arbitrary law enforcement,” the communist insisted. Irina Pankina retorted that it was a “targeted idea”: “We offer a special mechanism when the court decides whether this act is criminal or not.”

Yuri Sinelshchikov (KPRF) was outraged that the citizens who were subjected to criminal prosecution by Ukraine were not compensated for the damage caused, although if they acted in the interests of Russia, it would be fair to do so. “Moreover, what a loss: a person asked to be registered for the elections, but they do not register him! – the deputy gave an example with a Crimean activist. – You have a criminal record, you are not rehabilitated – that’s the whole song. “We believe that the issue of compensation in the form of rehabilitation for the actions of the authorities of another state is strange,” Irina Pankina did not agree with the approach. As a result, the document was adopted without additional amendments immediately in the second and third readings.

Initiative United Russia members Alexander Khinshtein, Pavel Krasheninnikov and Irina Pankina, who proposed to tighten the responsibility for the transfer of mobile phones to pre-trial detention centers and colonies, also conceptually suited all deputies.

“Phones in the hands of convicted or arrested people are new crimes,” Mr. Khinshtein explained. “These are, first of all, so-called call centers, fraudulent calls, coordination of accomplices at large, organization of new crimes.” Over the past three years, almost 140,000 mobile phones have been confiscated in prisons, the deputy reported and even showed his colleagues “samples” – tiny telephones literally the size of a matchbox. “Even drones are involved: 142 unmanned aerial vehicles were intercepted, which mostly carried phones on their board,” Mr. Khinshtein said. Such expensive tricks, according to him, are paid off by the fact that the cell phone is now a key tool for replenishing the so-called thieves’ common fund. The authors of the bill propose to fight the misfortune by raising fines according to the relevant composition in the Code of Administrative Offenses (from 3-5 thousand to 25-50 thousand rubles) and introducing criminal liability (up to two years in prison) for repeated administrative violations.

After listening to the statistics, deputies Alexei Kurinny and Mikhail Sheremet (ER) asked why the “jammers” and the previously adopted legislative measures (about blocking numbers “highlighted” by convicts) do not work. Alexander Khinshtein explained that it is now impossible to cover all zones and pre-trial detention centers with jammers, and the law on blocking does not apply to the topic under discussion. “The explanatory note says that the majority of frauds are committed from places of deprivation of liberty. But back in 2021, the head of the Federal Penitentiary Service claimed that an inspection was carried out together with the FSB and it was officially announced that there were no call centers on the territory of such institutions, ”Andrei Alshevsky (ER) reminded fellow party member. “Not the majority, but a serious part,” Alexander Khinshtein corrected his colleague, but confirmed the trend, referring to the statistics of the Ministry of Internal Affairs. But the statement of the now former, as United Russia emphasized, director of the Federal Penitentiary Service, he questioned: “With all due respect, I’m afraid to talk about the complete destruction (of call centers.— “b”) is not necessary, but we must honestly admit that the number of such crimes from places of deprivation of liberty has really decreased.” However, border countries “took” a significant part of telephone frauds, Alexander Khinshtein added: “First of all, Ukraine, where this activity is under the control of special services.”

The last argument seems to have finally convinced the deputies, and the amendments to the Code of Administrative Offenses and the Criminal Code were adopted unanimously.

Grigory Leiba