revolutionary amendments into the country's law intended to abolish prison punishment for low profile crimes may this be true and are we still to expect new major changes we're asking the minister of justice alexander payne our. president been vetted through the air so it's not surprising he's pushing forward reforms which can improve the law in russia and i'm lowly so overcrowded prisons is offering to substitute imprisonment with a softer but fair punishment the courts crown the convicted into already overstuffed prisons because the law prescribes time in jail for petty crime also people often cannot defend themselves or wrecked within the law because they just don't know what the laws are eliminating the so called legal illiteracy is also among present betters priorities. are mistaken of elephant thank you very much for being with us on the show much for imitation thank you well first of all the government is beginning to to to to start

a reform which is aimed at liberalizing the punishment system so for what kind of crimes the punishment will be eased or should be zero actually spoken should not say that this is liberalizing as a ts. i should better say some kind of making the system operate merrick memoriam and more transparent as well absolutely right when talking about their present day but it is for a system of russian federation about an outdated system sometimes we. have to confess that in some respects the system as courtesy of the gulag system and it's a terrible situation right now because that the country is absolutely different from those previous times it's an absolute different from that period of twenty or thirty years ago that's why of course we have to work out the system. it is more

effective and absolutely more transparent than it is now can you confirm the reports in some of the russian media that that the punishment for theft and robbery will be softened and the new law is a true i should say it will be soft it because changed as the system of a given this punishment will be changed i hope so and the practice of the courts mcconnell courts will be changed in russia for duration because of this new draft of the law that's been discussed by president innovative and his deputies the previous week what are they talking about we're talking about the so-called low limits of the criminal punishment as imprisonment. in the present day system we have absolutely probably at least. almost all of their criminal codes articles their punishment for example from four years till twelve years and this study

a lot of limits for their court practice now days where saying about their reduction of the article from zero to twelve years and that means that there are real a series or a really serious criminals not saying about the manslaughters was there or was there thieves and some serious hole against well still be a punish to the real a serious maximum punishment at the same time when a court is taking care with some other case when it could be more mild the bottom is the criminal but not to break his life at all absolutely in this case the court will have an opportunity to do it. i have read that as a result of the reform you expect well i mean you your ministry expects the number of inmates in russian prisoners to drop by one third as a hope so how many people are in jail today as the this figure is

enormous to my mind it's around eight hundred eighty thousand people nearly a million illegal are it's in jail and sometimes even more close to the milam it's more than one hundred listen i have read more than once in the papers that in russia like every third person in the country has been in jail is that true i don't think so but we have such a bad future if we're not stop. does it mean i mean reducing the number of in the doesn't mean that a large portion up to one third of the people who are imprisoned in russia today really present no threat to society well you know the first idea that we are trying to negotiate is to reduce the quantity of the people being imprisoned as a punishment for the criminal crime because they are of no real because a because the very crime and also serious and dangerous for the society this is the

first thirty or the second one is to reduce the terms of the imprisonment because nowadays it's much higher than generally in the most of the developed. western countries and the countries all over the world for example in norway is for i know it's only around tough a year and. a minimum term of imprisonment and for russia it's probably more than six years so releasing releasing people out of jail doesn't mean that me my family and my my kid will be surrounded by dangerous criminals who are really courts of course and their main idea is that it's not their leave it all is asian itself it's not the determination of their liability or missouri's and criminals and all of them that will still get as much as it is necessary to punish them and to make the society safe from their benteke to exist but at the same time and the third the third idea what i'm talking about is. the spreading of the use of the so-called

alternative measures of imprisonment it's also a well developed trend all over the world right now will let a little let's talk about these alternative measures which have never been really popular in this country not the russian all that i think you know if they were what is finds correctional labor what else as it's so-called obligatorily of us and it sir. limited freedom one the person also still is not in prison not isolated from a suicide but at the same time his freedom is a little bit limited and his behavior is a little bit under some supervision of the state authorities and quite a lot of them i think it's very very important way to change their criminal policy . of this site and i've spoken about this alternative measures is not in forcing

people to go for these punishments but just motivating them to do it themselves not being supervised by the. policeman for example and many here is that if the person is not trying to. make all the obligation. to do it is to make their sentence of the. other criminal court to be implemented in this case here or she will have threat of been punished more seriously for example sent to the prism so this is the man idea so so so as usual one of the main main aims of your work as a minister of justice is to make the punishment and never double is that true just ok you said recently that long imprisonment only leads to receipt of isn't as the prison inmates lose touch with the society and become part of the criminal

world law rather than staying a part of the society how long does an average prisoner say stay in confinement today and will it change as as a result of the new four as i hope so and so this is the main the main goal of the . draft law that has been discussed and probably will send by a president in a very to the russian parliament so we hope there. average terms of imprisonment. will come close to a probably two or three years average i think certainly and today it is i think today small a six or seven months six are. ok today the prosecution is asking for fourteen years more imprisoned for her that of course can lead to if they are accused for four for economic fraud how does this correspond to the principle of the reform that we're talking about. well what about i cannot. let

myself go man their particular case because i don't know the details and the devil is in the day as we know it but as far as the comical crimes are being concerned my . my my idea and i do believe that the. most popular punishment for this economical. crimes should be the big fines be the big fines not and president of course of course you've economical crimes are not combine with some more serious criminal activities e.u. you mentioned before in this interview that that a court should try to help the person to to to really to really to correct his behavior and not always try to ruin his life ah there are cases when a court may set a girl to ruin person's life i should say that it's not problem of the goal of the

court to a correct somebody is life it's main idea it's main task is just to punish to develop it correctly their particular case and to punish it in a proper and transferred way and out of that but a different system of the country itself should or create their optimal possibilities for everybody who would like to rest socialize him self and to became the project of society again. i should say we have to build up some kind of social elevators from the bottom of the society to at least zero stage and that's why i think they're great the main idea of their courts to it is is just to. punish somebody correctly more closely to the case says alexander can of all of russian justice minister that spotlight will be back shortly so stay with us then we will continue this and.

we'll do the. civilians contain explosive. material strict limits to seal slaughter militia go magic has better planes in the sky and seeds of hope to protect our hearts here recently we can provide such accuracy to many forms modern technology and here. we've got the future covered. in most cases. in hotels corsten. hotel keeper palace it is called this hotel east west never tell moscow center nobody. thought.

bredesen s.a.'s lobby and sky park insulters historical hotels of its culture in the city so it's in sky mall. midday elegant until somebody struck for leicester tropicana hotel. welcome back to spotlight i'm going off and just to remind you that my guest in the studio today is alexander the kind of well off russian justice minister we're talking about the reform in the russian judicial system mistaken about the russian penitentiary system is often criticized by my colleagues in the russian press and the russian media and often it has been in the center of scandals for the conditions in which the inmates are serving. their duties and

sometimes they're equal to torture. will the reform lead to the change in this respect i should say actually the things are already greater changed in the system during the last probably eight or ten years because of all the cases that have been on the agenda although i say european human rights courts are the cases of the ninety's of the end of ninety's probably the beginning of a. when is and now day the situation greatly changed. and the times their conditions of friends and judgment are really really terrible i should say i was once upon a investigate and supervise and prosecuted myself i can prove myself by my own experience and probably their practice of the european human rights courts is

when i was based on their own it's own through impressions we're probably you know that even the only fact of the imprisonment was. understood by the burning human rights courts as being equal to the torturing so it's of course a disgust and situation for russia. as a big nation as a civilized country said they haven't proved over the last decade or so but that doesn't mean that they still need improvement because of it because people continue their case when people die in prison because of lack of medical system things like this that absolute truth and of course this is the system at the station is quite far from being ideal and as far as the medical services are being concerned i should say we also are trying to change the situation in some serious way first of all we changed their managing rather seriously and the system and on the other hand were trying to suggest some ways of el sol singh for example suggest in their

civil special it's not work in the special service to help people in this medical field and finally i would like to say about a very important draft law being concerned with their. abortion the imprisonment of people who have some serious diseases according to some specialists been established and proved by the russian government and we hope that this draft law will become a work in lore quite soon and this will also change situation great you mentioned you have been in the investigative you yourself cell so you do know that the government is restricting the right to visits inmates that want to close relatives which should have given you problems when you were investigated and it still is the case a trying to change that. i think that this iteration should be probably changed but

we're not. but we don't think that ideas are initiatives absolutely absolutely proper about the same time we're sure that their. present day situation also is not optimal by the way in the different countries the situation is also rather discussable for example in the netherlands all their. people not being the close relatives to the for the prisoners also allowed to. visit them for a rather long period of time and it's also true for the who goes to visit the. prisoners and that's really what is wrong with it. is that well i don't know that i don't want to go there is that what the prisoners on the rubble of what at least it should be under some proper order so they should pay taxes. like it now listen russia is a leading country. in terms of the number of appeals to the european courts on

human rights does it mean that the russians have the least chance in europe to get adequate justice in their own country first of all i should say that. only in the absolute figures where the leaders because one of the count to i went. she added we only have the seventeenth or something like the horizon you're so we're just a big country yes on the other hand i should say it's a very important thing according to the president information around ninety percent all these. claims to the european human rights courts finally. turned down excessive. and that's why there are no any judging this. into this to this result and that's why the figures are a little bit strange thing you know but at the same time of course we do understand that the practice of the european human rights courts. is very important for our

country because that means that we still have a lot of problems in our judicial system well let's see if the russians believe in their judicial system spotlights cuts trying to find that also in the streets of moscow. high there today i'll try to find out if freshness trust in their judicial system and whether they think they could win a case against an official if it came down to it. well it all depends it depends on my resources and my lawyer whether i'm right or wrong and my knowledge of the law and in all this plus one initial resource there is a good chance that i can win a case if it doesn't happen in our court i can always go further i can take my case to the european court which would rule based on the situation and not on the sides involved the situation also depends on how far this official is ready to go and where is the borderline that he can't cross but the chances are very slim because i

was born in judges always side with the government and officials. well i think the chances of winning are very slim because unfortunately our courts are not independent from the administration officials using their resources can influence an outcome of a case even if i'm right or. no because judges would never go against the government and the officials that you know you will not get a just decision in our court if an official is in one of. these years but. because certainly there are chances. for an individual to win in the courts people through to. those courts. to become really independent. but this intuition as it is today. still i guess the chances are. brother mode just. so mr can i will of do you think it's possible for an illiterate person to win a case against an official in russia do you think it's possible of course i do

believe it's a possibility although i'm quite far from the standing of the situation as really perfect and what is my opinion is that of course we have to. make our judging system the status of our judges system as more close to the european. international judge and standards as it's possible so this is the main goal is and a very important idea. by the way despite all the existence of non existent european human rights courts we're still are interested in the proper and effective judging system in this country as a nation as a great country. economical. economical or strong strong country that's very important thing and of course there is no one opportunity to be more than an innovative country using such innovative development while their human rights not guaranteed in a proper way well but anyway e.u.

should admit that your belief that. really that contradicts what most of the people . who sell you still have work to do. now russia today's journalist not to share out of heaps of that was one did recently you might heard of that she was wounded by a non lethal weapon. there is a certain support white support too too bad these non-lethal weapons do do do you think this should be done and not. well of course it should be done i guess but what about there. well there's quite a lot of ideas for for for a. spread in a peculiar to stew to have guns and some different types of weapons and some freeway in this country i'm. absolutely sure that's not possible and no way for

this situation although they say this quiets more liability wise. quite a lot of chances that the criminals will be afraid and will biscay out of the situation but i don't believe this we read in the press that only one per cent of the people that go to courts are acquitted ninety nine percent are accused why is it a bias why does it happen. well i don't know exactly both what it was if anything would not wish to publish this well it's all smoke to have to try it actually we do believe that the criminal just lation the russian federation is quite outdated and changed greatly during the. approach often nineteen ninety six ninety nine to say one where the. president criminal code was in amended into the practice and that's why they are probably arrived there people are that suggest. creating

a new criminal code. so there there dear of president very of as far as i understand it is that we do not should not stop of this stage for example. concerning this draft law that what is good that was discussed the previous week but we have to go further you have to deal with this so-called economical crimes they have to deal with a new package of alternative measures for the criminals and finally what is probably the most important thing is that we should not stop just with adoption of this laws and signing them by president inventive because the most important thing will happen in the courts practice this court practice should be changed and the trends in a court court practice should be desperately changed and the same time i should say their control the still society and all the state authorities not.

their courts and the judges themselves should be absolute on the planet but what about the practice in general it should be out of the control thank you thank you very much for being with us and just to remind you that my guest in the studio today was that kind of all of russian justice minister and that's it for now from all of us here will be back until then stay on r.t. and take care i see about that you are. download the official t. application to your phone or i pod touch from the i q saps to. life on the good. video on demand tease my old calls and r.s.s.

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a fresh wave of strikes in france but the majority. of the costly destruction particularly reform. approval. e.u. countries struggle with shoojit budget cuts the government the largest states. paying for the problems of smaller nation. to the lisbon treaty. the new arrest in an f.b.i. sting fuels fears of homegrown terrorism in the u.s. criticism of the agency's entrapment tactics the wrong people. sending too much junk mail might put one man in jail russia's investigation into one of the world's biggest spammers sends him on the run and slashes circulation of

e-mail ads by one thing. and on the basis. of the granite. state. that much more and if it is. a very warm welcome to you. live from moscow france is seeing another day of disruption and another crippling two hundred million euros loss for its finances the pension reform people have been protesting against has already been stomped and it seems the tide is now turning against the unions who have been paralyzing the country's economy. out of a report. saving face the french trade unions are still taking.