The Cabinet of Ministers supported the bill on criminal liability for sabotage from the age of 14

The Government of Russia supported a bill introducing criminal liability under the article on sabotage from the age of 14. Now a criminal penalty can be imposed under it, if the crime was committed by a person who has reached the age of 16.

The document was introduced by State Duma deputy from “United Russia” Oleg Garyn, who is a member of the Duma Committee on Transport and Development of Transport Infrastructure.

The draft law was introduced against the background of cases of arson of relay cabinets and other railway equipment that have taken place since the beginning of the war against Ukraine. As Garin noted in the explanatory note, among the detained arsonists sometimes there are teenagers aged 14-15 years.

The deputy also proposes to introduce responsibility from the age of 14 for completing training for the purposes of sabotage and organizing a subversive community and participating in it. The maximum penalty under these articles is life imprisonment.

• After the start of the full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine, and especially after the announcement by Vladimir Putin Opponents of the so-called partial mobilization in many regions of Russia began to set fire to military enlistment offices, police departments, city administration buildings, and relay boxes on railways.
• At first, criminal cases of arson were considered under the articles of damage to someone else’s property or hooliganism. Later, the authorities declared that such cases would be regarded as acts of terrorism and sabotage and would be punished by imprisonment for many years, up to life.