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<p class="article__subtitle">With serious consequences - up to seven years in prison</p>
In case of violation of the requirements for anti-terrorism protection of objects or territories, as a result of which serious harm was caused to someone's property or health, or even death, it is proposed to punish a maximum seven years in a colony. The draft law to supplement the Criminal Code with a new article has been submitted to the State Duma and has already received the support of the Supreme Court and the government.
The authors of the initiative, the deputies of United Russia headed by the chairmen of two committees (Vasily Piskarev - on security and the fight against corruption and Alexander Khinshtein - on information policy, information technologies and communications) explain its appearance by the peculiarities of the current situation. “Today there are no potential, but very real threats of terrorist attacks and sabotage in infrastructure, businesses and organizations. The harsher punishment will give pause to those who disregard safety rules,” Piskarev told reporters. According to him, "when it comes to security, every little thing is important, and we must not forget that even the most modern and expensive means of protection, video surveillance or alarm systems can be useless if the control of access is not respected or escape routes are blocked.
However, in the explanatory note to the bill there is no hint of the specificity of the situation, just as there are no statistics indicating the urgent need to supplement the Criminal Code with a new article. The document indicates that in 2019, administrative liability was introduced for violation of the requirements for anti-terrorism protection of objects or territories and refusal to comply with these requirements by those who are obliged to do so by their position – article 20.35 appeared in the Code of Administrative Offenses. But criminal liability for such acts, which involve serious consequences, is currently established only in case of violation of the requirements for anti-terrorism protection of complex fuel and energy facilities (oil pipelines, oil and gas fields, storage, oil refineries, etc. ) and transport infrastructure (railways, airports, highways, etc.). Deputies consider it appropriate to supplement the Criminal Code with another article entitled “Violation of the requirements of anti-terrorist protection of property (territories)” in general, in the broadest sense of the word.
If, as a result of negligent violations, serious harm was caused to human health or significant material damage was inflicted (in the amount of more than 1 million rubles), it is proposed to punish with a fine up to 80,000 rubles, or even imprisonment for up to 3 years with a three-year ban on borrowing certain positions. If someone has died as a result of offenses, an uncontested prison sentence of up to five years is promised, followed by a ban from the profession, if there are two or more deaths, up to seven years in prison. The investigation of these crimes will be carried out by the FSB, the SVD and the Investigative Committee – the corresponding amendments are being developed to the Code of Criminal Procedure.
The government supported the bill. “Given the content of the legislative initiative and its concern for ensuring public safety, there are no comments or proposals on the bill,” is all the official response from the Supreme Court on the merits of the case.
What objects or territories are we talking about? There are no specifics in the text of the bill, it only says that it is not about fuel and energy facilities or transport infrastructure facilities, on which there are special items. One of the authors, M. Khinshtein, explained “MK” as follows: “we are talking about those objects for which anti-terrorism protection requirements must be established without fail, such objects where there is a massive stay and accumulation of citizens – for example, shopping malls, department stores, markets, cinemas. And another author, Deputy Head of the Security and Anti-Corruption Commission Ernest Valeev (ER), in a conversation with MK, recalled that in every organization and institution there is a person who is responsible for security, there is a security service, where there is a head, and there are specific officials who must comply with the established requirements: in this case, they will be held criminally liable under the new article. But, Mr Valeev said, in order to initiate criminal proceedings, it is necessary “whether or not certain acts have been committed which have led to serious consequences, and the causal link between these acts and the consequences must be proven”. If disturbances (ie a terrorist attack or an attempted terrorist attack) have occurred despite the exact observance of all norms and rules, it turns out that security officials have not committed No mistake.
Statistics from the Judicial Department of the Supreme Court indicate that under the same articles of the Penal Code that have been in force for several years now, on liability for violation of anti-terrorism requirements in transport and in fuel and energy installations, sentences are extremely rare in Russian courts. For 2021 and the first half of 2022 (data for all of 2022 has yet to be released), not a single person has been convicted for violating anti-terrorism security requirements at fuel and gas facilities. energy of the country, and two were condemned for similar acts. transportation offensives. It is still unclear whether the situation has changed significantly due to the increased frequency of fires and explosions at various facilities after the start of the special military operation.