Russia will not extradite foreign contractors at the request of other countries for criminal prosecution and execution of sentence – the corresponding amendment to the Russian Criminal Code has been approved by a government commission. This is reported by Russian media citing sources, reports the channel “Real Time”.
The amendments will affect foreigners and stateless persons who are or have been doing military service under contract in the Russian army and other military formations, as well as participated in hostilities as part of them.
Igor Cherepanov, deputy chairman of the board of the Russian Bar Association, explained to the state agency TASS and the Vedomosti newspaper that such measures are allegedly aimed at preserving military secrets and other important information.
The initiative of the Russian government amends Article 464 of the Criminal Procedure Code of the Russian Federation, the laws “on the procedure for leaving the Russian Federation and entering the Russian Federation” and the Federal Law “on the legal status of foreign citizens in the Russian Federation”.
It will also be prohibited to reduce the terms of temporary stay in Russia for such foreigners, to refuse to issue or cancel their residence permits, not to allow them to enter Russia and to determine their stay (residence) there undesirable.
State Duma deputy Alexei Kurenoy told RTVI that the package of bills approved by the government was a “restoration of common sense” and said that such migrants have a “priority right to Russian citizenship.”
Foreign mercenaries of the Russian army are regularly condemned in their home countries for taking part in the war against Ukraine. For example, in the summer, a court in Uzbekistan imposed three and a half years of restricted freedom on a 59-year-old resident of the Kashkadarya region who had fought as a member of the PMC Wagner: the Uzbekistani man had been recruited to the front from prison.