sure is that so much of the taxpayer's money i mean if you would like to hear the real material hungering for the truth and dancers is the world facing another food crisis if it is the victims are obvious to the poor around. hello again welcome to spotlight. on r.t. i'm al green of entry my guest in the studio is. one of the milestones of the three medvedev presidency is the reform of the russian penitentiary system which many consider pretty outdated revolutionary amendments in the country's law in turn to abolish prison punishment for low profile crimes may this be true

and always still to expect new major changes we're asking the minister of justice alex on the phone our. hasn't been dead if there's a lawyer so it's not surprising he's pushing forward reforms which can improve the lawyer russia and unload the crowded prisons he's 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 within the law because they just don't know what the laws are eliminating the so called illegal illiteracy is also among present better priorities. is to kind of elephant thank you very much for being with us on the share my friend thank you well first of all the government is beginning to 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 oh actually spoken should not say that this is liberalizing as it is. i should better say some kind of making the system operate medic memoriam and more transparent as well absolutely right when talking about their present day but it does for a system of russian federation as about an outdated system sometimes we even can have to confess that in some respects the system as a courtesy of the gulag system and it's a terrible situation right now because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 enough for different from the period of twenty or thirty years ago that's why of course we have to work out the system that 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 not say it will be soft it because it changed as the system of a given this punishment will be changed i hope so and the practice of the courts are going all 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 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 the punishment for example from four years till twelve years and this study out 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 are really serious criminals not saying about the manslaughters but the robbers thieves and some serious hola guns will still be a punished 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 to punish the criminal but not to break his life at all absolutely and 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 get your ministry expects the number of inmates in russian prisons to drop by one third as a hope so how many people are in jail today known as the this figure is enormous to my mind it's around eight hundred eighty thousand people nearly a million in seoul are it's in jail and some turns in more close to the militants

more than one hundred thousand 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 or i don't think so but we have such a bad future if we 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 quality of the people be imprisoned as a punishment for the criminal crime because they are of no real because a because the 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 as 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 course of course and their main idea is that it's not there really but all these asian itself nor the determination of the 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 this 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 well developed brand 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 really are what is finds a correctional labor what else has its so-called obligatorily of us sir. limited freedom one the person also still is not in prison not isolated from the side 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 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 their obligation. do it is to make their standards of the. other criminal courts to be implemented in this case here or she will have threat of being 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 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 reforms 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 sickly and today it is i think today smaller six or seven months six are. ok today the prosecution is asking for fourteen years more imprisoned for her that across skin leverage 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 going to. let myself go man their particular case because i don't know the details of the devils of the day as we know it but as far as the economy crimes are being

concerned my. my my idea and i do believe that the. most popular punishment for these economical. crimes should be the big fines should be the big fines not imprisonment of course of course you've economical crimes and 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 ideas main task is just to punish to develop it correctly their particular case and to punish it in

a proper and transferred way and up to that but a different system of the country itself should or create. optimal possibilities for everybody who would like to wrestle shalosh himself into became a 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 the court's activities 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 until.

well into the. civilians contain explosive. bacteria strikes to limits to seal slaughter militia goal magic has better planes in the sky and seeds of hope to protect our hearts here so even we can provide such accuracy leave to many forms modern technology and here. we've got the future covered. russia would be so rich brighter if you remove it. from violence to. start on t.v. dot com. welcome

back to spotlight on our now and just a reminder that my guest in the studio today is alexander canaveral of russian justice minister we're talking about the reform in the russian judicial system mr khan of the russian penitentiary system is often criticized by my colleagues in the russian press in 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 a 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 right courts are the cases of the ninety's of the end of ninety's beginning of a. twenty's and now today the situation greatly changed. and the times their conditions of friends and judgment were really really terrible i should say i was once upon a investigate and supervising prosecutor 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 deserve 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 management rather seriously in the system and on the other hand we are trying to suggest some ways of el sol singh for example suggest in their civil special is not work in the special service to help people in this medical field and finally i would like to say about the 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 investigator 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 it's not. what it would of thing that our initiatives absolutely absolutely proper about the same time we're sure that there. present a situation also is not optimal by the way in the different countries the situation

is also rather discussable for example in the netherlands all the. people not being the close relatives for the prisoners are 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 that i've been is that well i don't know that i don't want to go there is that what the prisoners honorable about since 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 and 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 think. 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 hold this. claims to the european human rights courts finally. turned down the excess of. 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 the 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 a 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 that chances of winning are very slim because unfortunately 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 government

and definitions if 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 should try. those chords. to become really independent but this iteration as it is today. still i guess the chances. brother mode just. so mr can i will of do you think it's possible for an illiterate person to win a case against the official in russia do you think it's possible of course i do believe it's possible 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 started so i would judge a system as more close to the european. and international judgement sternness as

it's possible so this is the main goal is and a very important idea. by the way despite all the existence of nonexistent the european human rights courts were still are interested in their proper and effective judging system in this country as a nation as a great country. economical. economical strong strong country that is 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 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 rush are today's journalists 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 to tibet and 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 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 quite more liability wise. quite a lot of chances that the criminals will be afraid and will the scale 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. what it was supreme court nominees to publish this well it's all small to have that tries actually we do believe that the criminal just lation the russian federation is quite outdated and changed greatly during the. the period after in nineteen ninety six ninety nine to say one where the. president criminal code was an implement it into the practice and that's why probably arrived there people are that i suggest. creating a new criminal code. so their idea of president medvedev as far as i understand it is that we do not should not stop of this stage for example. concerning the draft law that what is good that was discussed the previous week but we have to

go further we have to deal with this so-called economical crimes we 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 war just with adoption of this laws and signing them by president very well 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 absolutely to ban it but what about their court practice in general it should be under the control thank you thank you very much for being with us in just a reminder that my guest in the studio today was alexander cannavaro 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 a place about those who are. the

official. from the. video on demand. and. with the palm of your. question. in some. hotel emerald. as a club school who turned. to gold. ski pundits. kempinski twenty two.

the new wave of demonstrations in france over the raising of the pension age sixty two as the problem. bitterly contested bill however public support for widespread union disruption which has been crippling the country costing hundreds of millions a year old appears to be falling. richest economies want a much stricter financial discipline ways of handling financial downturn including changing the lisbon treaty to suspend voting rights for wayward budget. there's also a rally as the european commission. wants to increase the budget by almost six percent with some opposed to n.z. super imposed cars spending cuts and. russian prosecutors have

launched their first ever. suspected of being the world's biggest hits. blamed for a fifth of the worlds of junk mail something you've got to see on the run amok you made a fortune of over one hundred million dollars by sending out e-mails advertising the ability to. cut and thrust of debate in cross talk is coming your way shortly host peter lavelle and his guests ask if global food security and talk of a crisis is a myth or for real. will do the. job means continue substantial bacterias limits to see a slight middle of the magic has better please this.