Moscow: The Lower House of Russia’s Parliament on Tuesday approved legislation increasing the punishment for treason to life imprisonment and boosting the penalty for terrorism.
The legislation, which advances to the Parliament’s Upper House, represents an escalation of the Kremlin’s domestic crackdown. Human rights advocates say charges of treason and terrorism are sometimes used against political critics and opponents. Another aspect of the crackdown reported on Tuesday was an allegation of violence brought against imprisoned Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny. The State Duma sent for further approval a proposal to increase the punishment for treason to life imprisonment from the current maximum of 20 years. Punishment for terrorism would be increased from 15 to 20 years in prison. Specifically for international terrorism, punishment will be from 12 years to life imprisonment, up from its current penalty of 10 to 20 years.
In the Navalny case, his spokespeople reported that he was hurt in an incident Monday in the maximum security IK-6 prison in the Vladimir region village of Melekhovo, about 250 kilometres (155 miles) east of Moscow.