You can’t attach a foreign conviction to a case – Kommersant

The Ulyanovsk regional electoral commission has registered former American prisoner Viktor Bout as a candidate for the regional legislative assembly, despite earlier rumors about his possible removal from the elections due to a criminal record in the United States. As Kommersant found out, the electoral commission had purely theoretical grounds for refusing to register: the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation recently indicated that a sentence pronounced by a court of a foreign state should entail the same restrictions on passive suffrage as those pronounced in Russia. However, the experts interviewed by Kommersant believe that it is legally difficult and politically inexpedient to put this instruction into practice, especially when it comes to “unfriendly” countries.

Last week, the election commission of the Ulyanovsk region registered Viktor Bout as a candidate for the regional legislature on the LDPR list. Shortly before this, there were rumors in the region that Mr. Bout could be denied registration due to an outstanding conviction received in the United States. However, in the end, the electoral committee did not have any questions for the candidate, because Russian legislation does not say anything about a criminal record in another country, explained the chairman of the regional electoral committee, Yuri Andrienko. The card of a candidate for the GAS “Vybory” states that the “household owner” Viktor Bout “has no criminal record in the Russian Federation,” but he was convicted in the United States under nine paragraphs of the US Code.

Vladimir Kostin, deputy head of the central apparatus of the LDPR, told Kommersant that it “didn’t occur to the legal service of the party” to evaluate the candidate’s documents taking into account the requirements of US law: “The Americans subjected our compatriot to political repression. Viktor Anatolyevich Bout was accused of participating in a conspiracy against the United States. But the Liberal Democratic Party is guided not by the arguments of the US repressive machine, but by the laws and values ​​of Russia.”

Meanwhile, the plenum of the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation, which recently explained in detail the practice of considering electoral disputes, in its decision also touched upon issues related to foreign convictions. This document states that the conviction of a person by a court of a foreign state for committing an act recognized as a crime in accordance with the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation and related to the crimes specified in the law on basic guarantees of electoral rights as a basis for restricting passive suffrage, entails a similar restriction – until the expiration of the deadlines established by law. Recall that under the current federal law, citizens who have previously been convicted of grave and especially grave crimes, as well as those involved in the activities of a terrorist or extremist organization banned in the Russian Federation, do not have the right to be elected for a long period of time.

Oleg Zakharov, an electoral lawyer and former chairman of the electoral committee of the Yaroslavl region, admits that this paragraph of the decision of the plenum of the Supreme Court became the subject of active discussion among colleagues immediately after the publication of the document. From the very beginning it was clear that the literal application of this paragraph is impossible, he notes. After all, there are already Russian politicians “convicted” by Ukrainian courts, and the number of unfriendly countries that can “stamp” such decisions, unfortunately, is not limited to Ukraine, explains Mr. Zakharov.

Nevertheless, the lawyer recalls, in 2014, the well-known local politician Anatoly Gritsenko was removed from the first elections after the annexation of Crimea to Russia to the State Council of the republic.

He had a Ukrainian conviction, and he did not indicate it, arguing that the article was political and that for which he was tried in Ukraine is not a crime in Russia. However, the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation considered that a criminal record is a criminal record and the politician does not have the right to run for office.

Now, according to the same legal position set out in the decision of the plenum of the Supreme Court, Viktor Bout may well be recognized by the court as having a criminal record of a foreign state with all the ensuing consequences, adds Oleg Zakharov. On the other hand, the expert argues, the recognition of a foreign conviction requires proper evidence. In addition, the United States has a radically different system for categorizing crimes, and the articles under which a Russian is convicted cannot be qualified as serious, so he is not prohibited from participating in elections.

The electoral commission has every legal reason to ignore the sentence handed down to Mr. Bout, Ilya Rachkov, an associate professor at MGIMO, confirms: decisions of criminal courts of other states are recognized in Russia only if an appropriate agreement is concluded between the two countries.

We do not have such an agreement with the United States, therefore Russia has no obligation to recognize the decisions of American courts, the lawyer concludes.

Today, it is clear that a criminal record in the United States is not a compromising circumstance and, on the contrary, counts against a candidate, political scientist Konstantin Kalachev is sure. This is a matter not so much of legal as of political expediency, and the current “hype” story will only add points to Viktor Bout in the Ulyanovsk region, increasing his recognition, the expert believes.

Anastasia Kornya, Grigory Leiba