Those who came from hell: the first criminals to be sentenced to death are released

Novye Izvestia figured out what all this could have consequences.

Irina Mishina

The Skopinsky maniac has recently become practically a TV star. Prior to that, Viktor Mokhov starred in an interview with Ksenia Sobchak, who specially came to his house, and then had a long conversation with him heart to heart. For this Mokhov was fined 1,200 rubles. After the video with the support of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation, a case was opened on Mokhov about a repeated violation of the regime.

I do not remember any analogues to this in the world judicial practice. First, the situation itself is paradoxical when a maniac is released and after that he does not just lead a convenient way of life - he turns into a media person. The fee that the Skopinsky maniac received for participating in the filming remains behind the scenes. There is reason to believe that he has seriously improved his financial position due to such "promotion".

The second shocking news is the release of those sentenced to death, who, thanks to the introduction of a moratorium, changed their sentences to 25 years in prison. Currently, 11 such citizens are being held in places of detention, the press service of the Federal Penitentiary Service told reporters. The last time in Russia a sentence of execution was carried out in 1996, after which a moratorium was imposed on the death penalty in the Russian Federation. The representative of the FSIN said that today in correctional colonies of a special regime for those sentenced to life sentences, there are 538 convicts, for whom the death penalty by way of pardon has been replaced by life imprisonment. “Almost all of these persons have committed crimes against the life and health of citizens for hooligan or selfish motives,” the press service of the FSIN said.

“In my opinion, the release of these convicts will lead to an increase in crime. Maniacs, serial killers, rapists who are free will continue to commit crimes. Only they will do it more professionally and carefully. From my experience in law enforcement, I can say that a murderer, especially a serial killer, will be drawn to commit a crime again. This category of people gets some kind of inexplicable pleasure from killing. The decision to release these convicts was made by the court. Needless to say, the courts in Russia are far from free in their decisions. I think there has been or will be given some kind of directive "from above". This is an unprecedented step. As a lawyer, I can say: this should not have been done", - retired Major General of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, member of the Moscow Prosecutor's Office, Candidate of Law, Mansur Yusupov, told Novye Izvestia.

A natural question arises: maybe, in the criminal situation in Russia, there have been some cardinal changes, crime has begun to decline?

According to the 2020 Russian crime rating, 50 out of 80 regions of the country saw an increase in crime. Over the past year, more than 53 thousand people suffered at the hands of criminals, of whom 20 thousand became victims of murderers. In total, 1.9 million more crimes were committed in the country than in 2019.

Experts emphasize that the situation with crime has been aggravated by the coronavirus pandemic: many have lost their jobs, and most Russians have a sharp drop in their quality of life. The population is getting poorer. And the poorer the region, the higher the crime rate there. Quarantine with self-isolation left their mark on the increase in the number of crimes: after all, the higher the stress, the greater the level of aggression.

Network analyst Dmitry Milin quotes terrible numbers in his blog, publishing statistics of murders per 100,000 of the population in Europe. Russia turned out to be the undisputed leader in it with a huge margin ahead of other countries. The number of murders in our country is 17 times higher than in Norway. By the way, in the USA, which they like to refer to so much, this coefficient is almost half less: it is 5.3 murders per 100 thousand citizens.

A natural question arises: is our law enforcement system capable of responding to all this? Are criminals no longer a threat to her? Indeed, recently our life has been literally "viewed" from all sides thanks to the equipping of houses, institutions, shops with video cameras. On the one hand, video cameras really help in solving crimes. But practice shows that often in the most "criminal" points of these very video cameras are not present. The author of these lines in January of this year ran into drug dealers at the Perekrestok store in a rather crowded place in Moscow. Almost in the city center. In the afternoon. After a statement to the local police department, the police found out that there were no video cameras in this busy place, not far from the metro, and the entrance to the store was not visible. The initiation of a criminal case was refused, although social networks were full of messages about the activity of drug dealers in this very place in Moscow.

“The situation in law enforcement agencies is now stalemate. There is a reduction in the number of staff. Only in the Department for Combating Economic Crimes in Moscow, not so long ago, 50% of operational workers were laid off. The professionals are leaving, the people on whom the system was based. Young investigators have been working for 2-3 years without a vacation, many of them lack experience, and the crime detection rate is low. At the same time, a command was given “from above” for “high-profile crimes” with publicity in the media. Hence all these stories about the golden toilet bowls and the "golden traffic policeman" Colonel Safonov, who became a billionaire on extortions in the traffic police. But all of these are “pinpoint strikes”; today we do not have a systematic fight against crime. It is quite easy to predict what the “democracy” in relation to the underworld threatens society: we will face an uncontrolled increase in criminal offenses, ” retired Major General of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, member of the Moscow Prosecutor’s Office, Candidate of Law, Mansur Yusupov , told NI.

There were analogies of such a massive release of dangerous criminals in Soviet history. The most famous event of this kind was the 1953 mass amnesty, known to many from the film "Cold Summer of Fifty-Three". Then, over a million people with a criminal past turned out to be free. A stream of people not adapted to life outside the zone poured into the cities. There were no special programs, just as there were no jobs for such people. As a result, many of them returned to criminal life. According to police statistics, already in 1953 the number of pickpockets (by 137%) and robberies (by 176%) soared. Rape and murder rates rose sharply. Small towns and settlements sometimes completely fell under the rule of bandits, people barricaded themselves in their homes at nightfall. Sometimes military formations were involved to block criminal elements.

The 53rd amnesty had another consequence: it led to uprisings of political prisoners, who also expected an improvement in their fate. They acted in a more organized and united manner.

It is difficult to judge what the current "democracy" of law enforcement and judicial authorities will lead to in relation to those convicted of especially dangerous crimes. But historical analogies are thought provoking. Moreover, it is dangerous against the background of the outflow of professionals from the law enforcement system.

“Now people with great experience are leaving the system of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, and special regiments are being created at the expense of the released units to suppress riots. Why create such special regiments if the Russian Guard has similar functions? Interdepartmental conflicts and inconsistencies in actions will inevitably begin. According to the mind, it would be necessary to create a single structure for these purposes. It may turn out that when solving political problems, power structures will pay less attention to their direct responsibilities - fighting the criminal world and ensuring the safety of people”, - retired Major General of the Ministry of Internal Affairs Mansur Yusupov said.

The indulgences to the criminal world will not end there. As it became known to "NI", in the Criminal Code may appear the concept of "criminal offense" - a crime, for the commission of which there will be no criminal record. The government commission on legislative work considered the initiative prepared by the Supreme Court in this regard urgent. If adopted, up to 30 thousand people a year will be able to be exempted from criminal liability.