Chairman of the National Antiterrorist Committee Nikolay Patrushev announced yesterday that the committee was drafting a resolution on amnesty for participants in illegal armed formations in Chechnya. The draft resolution will soon be sent simultaneously to the presidential administration and State Duma for approval. Duma members are being called in from summer vacation for it. The Kremlin thinks that, after the death of Shamil Basaev, the most authoritative rebel leader, there is a unique opportunity to end the war in Chechnya. The amnesty of “persons who have committed socially dangerous acts in the course of antiterrorist operations” in the North Caucasus was discussed by the committee yesterday in a meeting closed to the press. “Those citizens of Russia who were deceived by the leaders of armed gangs and lured into criminal activities have a real chance to return to a peaceful life,” Patrushev told journalists before the meeting. “And those who continue their criminal activities will receive the punishment they deserve.” Last Saturday, Patrushev offered the militants to give themselves up by August 1. Gennady Gudkov, member of the State Duma Security Committee, told Kommersant that the amnesty would most likely not apply to members of law enforcement or militants who committed premeditated murder, terrorist acts, kidnapping or violence against members of law enforcement agencies. Deputy speaker of the Duma Alexander Torshin excluded foreigners (that is, suspected mercenaries) and recidivists from the amnesty and noted that this amnesty will probably not differ greatly from previous ones. The authors of the resolution are targeting mainly young rebels who have not been involved in serious crimes.
However, this amnesty may be extended to those who commit especially serous crimes and their accomplices. Prosecutor of Chechnya Valery Kuznetsov told Kommersant that it was possible that the amnesty would apply “under certain conditions” to those “involved in serious crimes… according to our information, serious additions have been made to the articles [of the law], which previously were not subject to amnesty.”