Every second Russian supported the release of prisoners on the anniversary of the Victory

Previously, the possibility of carrying out this procedure was excluded in the State Duma.

An amnesty for those sent to prison for minor economic crimes would be approved by 67% of Russians. 46% of respondents consider it possible to forgive moderate economic crimes. Release of prisoners or mitigation of their punishment is not approved by only a quarter of the Russians surveyed. Crimes that threatened human security are not against the forgiveness of 44% of respondents if these crimes were minor, and a quarter of those surveyed if these crimes were of moderate gravity, according to a survey by the All-Russian Center for the Study of Public Opinion (VTsIOM).

The Russians mentioned several reasons why an amnesty can be carried out. For the amnesty for prisoners who transgressed the law to a slight degree, 24% of those polled voted. For the second chance for prisoners, another 17% spoke out. Another 14% of respondents said that people in prison can be aware of their mistakes, the same amount of judicial errors in the sentence. And only 7% of respondents say that an amnesty in honor of the anniversary of the victory is a manifestation of humanity. Half of the Russians surveyed who are against such an amnesty believe that people should be fully punished for their misconduct.

The draft resolution on the amnesty for the anniversary of the Victory was registered in the State Duma in February. It was proposed to release from prison all convicted persons who have the right to file for parole with the exception of malicious violators of the regime. If the decision were adopted, about 30 thousand convicts could be released. However, in April, the State Duma rejected the project , “so as not to give the impression that the same crimes could be committed, and then they would be released anyway.” The last time the amnesty was carried out five years ago in honor of the 70th anniversary of the Victory.

“When the State Duma rejected the idea of an amnesty, they allegedly named the data of a public poll as an unofficial reason, according to which Russians do not support such an idea. We, human rights defenders, have other information. Both lawyers and regional business ombudsmen have information that there is a request for amnesty”, - writes RBC with the reference to the public assistant of the Commissioner for Entrepreneurs' Rights under the President of the Russian Federation, Boris Titov, Alexander Khuruji. Human rights activists intend to submit this initiative to the State Duma again.