Fair Russia urges life in prison for corruption

The leader of Fair Russia party, Sergey Mironov insists that corruption should be equated to high treason and punished with a sentence from 25 years to life behind bars.

The introduction of the confiscation of criminally-obtained property would also be a reasonable step in the fight against corruption, Mironov told journalists. To add more, such a measure should be applied not only to corrupt officials, but also to members of their families, the former presidential candidate believes.The statement follows a series of high-profile corruption cases that are currently being investigated. Earlier this month, Russia’s Defense Minister Anatoly Serdyukov was sacked amid a major embezzlement case involving his ministry. In a separate case, a probe was launched into the disappearance of millions of dollars assigned for the preparation of the September’s APEC summit in Vladivostok. Another scandal emerged around the alleged theft of around US$200 million allocated for the development of the Russian analog of GPS – GLONASS global navigation system. Mironov views these probes as a positive sign and as “a start of a serious fight attains corruption.” The Fair Russia party’s State Duma representatives have already worked out amendments to the Russian Penal Code which would significantly toughen the punishment for bribe-takers. The leftist party has yet to decide though when exactly the draft bill will be submitted to the lower house, writes Kommersant daily.The proposal echoes those made earlier by other senior Russian officials. Sergey Ivanov, the head of the Kremlin administration, also urged tougher sentences, including confiscation of property, for civil servants convicted of corruption. Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin, who is in charge of the defense industry, stated that corruption in military procurement must be equated to high treason.