Will Pussy Riot, several Bolotnaya participants, and all Greenpeace activists be amnestied?
So reports Izvestiia:
The president has jointly decided with human rights activists who will be amnestied for the 20th anniversary of the Russian Constitution. According to the decree on amnesty, which the president sent to the State Duma, the criminal cases of some 20,000 – 22,000 people will be halted. Among them are seven participants in the Bolotnaya case, participants of Pussy Riot, and Greenpeace activists. The articles for which the blogger Alexsei Navalny are charged will not be amnestied. As those in the State Duma leadership told Izvestiia, the amnesty will be enacted at the end of the year. It will take up to six months to implement.
According to the amnesty draft bill available on the Kremlin’s website, Natalia Tolokonnikova and Maria Alyokhina would fall under point 6.2 which states:
“Women who have not lost their parental rights and have minor children under 18 years old on the day of the decree goes in effect fall under the action of the decree on amnesty.”
Tolokonnikova has a 5 year old daughter and Alyokhina a 6 year old son.
Vedomosti, however, reports based on the copy of the bill it received that three articles of the criminal code are exceptions, meaning those charged or convicted will be automatically freed. Two of the three pertain to Pussy Riot, the Bolotnaya participants and the jailed Greenpeace activists:
There is an exception for three articles of the criminal code: those convicted or on trial for them will be released and exempt from punishment regardless of age, sex or social status. There is Article 212 parts 2 and 3—the participation in mass disorder and calls for it (a maximum sentence of eight years). Participants in the Bolotnaya case fall under it. Earlier a source in the Presidential Council on Human Rights said the amnesty will extend to nine defendants in the case and will not affect those accused of using violence against police and OMON (Article 318 of the code, maximum 10 year sentence).
The second exception is for Article 213—hooliganism (up to seven years. Thus freedom would come early for Maria Alyokhina and Nadezhda Tolokonnikova of Pussy Riot. Also, [it includes] all Greenpeace activists who participated in the action in the Arctic: they are now charged with disorderly conduct, not piracy.
Of course, it’s too soon to celebrate. Plus, Tolokonnikova and Alyokhina are due to be released in a few months anyway. They might be out before the amnesty is implemented. Still it’s some hope and given the sources for these stories, Izvestiia, which has solid Kremlin connections, and Vedomosti, which does damn good journalism, I feel more positive than negative about this.
