MOSCOW, December 9 (RIA Novosti) – President Vladimir Putin has submitted a draft resolution to the State Duma on an amnesty for Russian prisoners to mark the 20th anniversary of the Constitution, the Kremlin reported.
More than 30,000 people, including 1,300 currently serving jail terms, could be granted amnesty under the proposals to mark this month’s anniversary, according to a report in Kommersant daily on Friday.
Vladimir Vasilyev, the head of the ruling United Russia party’s faction in the Duma, said Monday that around 25,000 would be covered.
Putin expressed his support for the amnesty on Wednesday but didn’t indicate who would be released. Kommersant said that people who had committed crimes against representatives of the state, primarily law enforcement officers, would be excluded.
Mikhail Prokhorov, the billionaire who heads the Civic Platform party, called the draft amnesty resolution “a victory of civil society.”
