PRESS-RELEASE *

The following issues are scheduled for discussion at the Government meeting on Oct. 4, 2012:

1. Results of the work to establish crisis management centres for an integrated state emergency prevention and response system and their development

With a view to protect the public and territories against natural and man-made emergencies, Russia has created a management system for running an integrated state emergency prevention and response system. The management system consists of coordinating permanent management and day-to-day management bodies.

Their establishment has been prompted by the need for a top-to-bottom integrated approach to inter-departmental management to protect the public and territories from emergencies and to coordinate the efforts and the resources of the Russian Emergency Prevention and Response System's (RSChS) functional and territorial subsystems.

Day-to-day management bodies include:

• Federal level: National Crisis Management Centre, crisis management centres (situation-crisis centres), information centres, and the duty and the dispatcher services of federal executive bodies and authorised organisations with RSChS functional subsystems
• Inter-regional level: Eight crisis management centres at the Ministry of Emergencies' regional centres in the federal districts
• Regional level: Eighty-one crisis management centres run by the Ministry of Emergencies' main directorates in Russia's constituent entities, as well as information centres, and the duty and the dispatcher services of executive bodies in Russian entities and territorial federal executive bodies.

2. Draft federal law On Introducing Amendments to Article 322¹ of the Criminal Code

The Criminal Code specifies the different types and amounts of sanctions for organising illegal immigration – fines, and compulsory, corrective and forced labour, and the deprivation of liberty with or without the restriction of freedom.

At the same time, law enforcement practice shows that the number of established instances of organising illegal immigration is growing. Thus, while the Federal Migration Service reported 228 criminal cases in 2006, the figure was already 385 in 2011.

The proposed amendments will increase the size and the length of the punishment specified in this article for organising illegal immigration. The maximum fine has been raised from 200,000 to 300,000 roubles, the maximum term of compulsory labour has been raised from 360 to 420 hours, the maximum term of corrective labour has risen from one to two years, the maximum term of forced labour has risen from two to three years, and the maximum term of the deprivation of liberty has increased from two to five years, with the restriction of freedom having increased from one to two years. If these crimes are carried out by an organised gang or for the purpose of committing a crime in Russia, the maximum term of the deprivation of freedom will increase from five to seven years.

3. Draft federal law On Introducing Amendments to Certain Legislative Acts of the Russian Federation for the Purpose of Preventing the Sale and the Exploitation of Children, Child Prostitution, and Activities Connected with the Manufacturing and Circulation of Materials or Objects with Pornographic Images of Minors 

The draft federal law aims to affirm Russia's readiness to fulfil the commitments of the Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on the Sale of Children, Child Prostitution and Child Pornography and the Council of Europe's Convention on the Protection of Children Against Sexual Exploitation and Sexual Abuse.

The Criminal Code sets the responsibility of individuals for committing the crimes specified in the protocol and the convention, such as the sale and the exploitation of children, or the use of children to produce pornographic materials. However, the legislation does not provide for criminal proceedings against a legal entity.

Thus, it is proposed to make the following amendments, specifically to:

• Supplement the federal law On the Basic Guarantees for the Rights of the Child in the Russian Federation with definitions of the phrases “sale of children” and “exploitation of children, a provision to include legal entities among the subjects held accountable for violating a child's rights and legitimate interests, and, also a new article titled, “Measures To Counteract the Sale of Children and the Exploitation of Children”, setting the basic principles for countering the sale of children and the exploitation of children, as well as the types of responsibility of individuals and legal entities that commit offences connected with the sale and the exploitation of children.
• Introduce into the Code of Administrative Offences new elements essential to administrative offences, such as the “Creation by a Legal Entity of the Conditions for the Sale of Children or the Exploitation of Children” and the “Manufacturing by a Legal Entity of Materials or Objects with Pornographic Images of Minors and Their Circulation”. The administrative punishment for legal entities shall include a fine of between 800,000 and 1 million roubles for creating conditions for the sale of children, between 200,000 and 500,000 roubles for creating conditions for the exploitation of children, and between 50,000 and 300,000 roubles for producing materials with pornographic images of minors, or the administrative suspension of activities for a period of up to 90 days.

4. Draft federal law On Introducing Amendments to the Criminal Code and the Criminal Procedure Code

(In the section concerning the responsibility of an adult for using the sexual services of a minor between the ages of 16 and 18) 

The draft was prepared to affirm Russia's readiness to fulfil the commitments provided for in the Council of Europe's Convention on the Protection of Children Against Sexual Exploitation and Sexual Abuse and the Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on the Sale of Children, Child Prostitution and Child Pornography.

Based on the convention and the optional protocol, participating states undertake to adopt the necessary measures to criminalise misdeeds involving child prostitution.

According to the convention, a child is any person up to 18 years old.

Therefore, the draft proposes to supplement the Criminal Code with an article establishing criminal responsibility for an individual who has reached 18 and uses the sexual services of a minor known to be between the age of 16 and 18.

5. Draft federal law On Introducing Amendments to Article 107 of the Criminal Procedure Code

The Constitutional Court's resolution has ruled invalid a number of provisions of Article 107 of the Criminal Procedure Code, as failing to specify the term of house arrest as a measure of restraint, to determine the grounds for and the procedure of extending it, and to limit how long a person can stay under house arrest, taking into account the term of custody used as a measure of restraint. In its present wording, the Criminal Procedure Code does not contain a provision reflecting the court’s opinion that it is necessary to include in the statute book a rule according to which the total time of detaining suspects and keeping the accused in custody or under house arrest as a restraint measure cannot exceed the period set by Article 109.

In this regard, the draft law proposes to supplement Article 107 with the relevant norm.

6. Draft federal law On Introducing Amendments to Article 7 of the federal law On the Development of Agriculture 

The draft provides a new channel of state support for the agricultural production and the sustainable development of rural territories – support for farm producers operating in regions that have unfavourable agricultural conditions.

The draft defines the phrase “a region with unfavourable agricultural conditions”. Such a region is one where the soil and the geographic factors, as well as the farm producers, have lower rates of returns than the average figures for the sector due to natural, climatic and socio-economic conditions, but farming must be practised to employ the rural population, raise their incomes, and maintain their way of life.

7. Draft federal law On the Ratification of the Agreement between the Government of the Russian Federation and the Eurasian Group for Combating Money Laundering and Terrorism Financing on the Hosting of its Secretariat in the Russian Federation  

The Eurasian Group for Combating Money Laundering and Terrorism Financing was set up upon Russia's initiative on Oct. 6, 2004. On June 16, 2011, an agreement was signed in Moscow, giving the Eurasian Group the status of a regional inter-governmental organisation.

Participating members are: Russia, Belarus, China, India, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan. The secretariat is based in Moscow. This has created the need to sign an agreement between the Russian Government and the Eurasian Group on the hosting of its secretariat in Russia.

8. Signing the Agreement between the Government of the Russian Federation and the Government of the Republic of Zimbabwe on the Promotion and the Mutual Protection of Capital Investments

9. Approving the rules for granting federal budget subsidies to the budgets of Russian entities in 2012 to eliminate inter-territorial cross-subsidising in the power industry and for distributing federal budget subsidies granted to the budgets of these entities in 2012 to eliminate cross-subsidising in the industry

The practice of allocating subsidies to the budgets of Russian entities to eliminate inter-territorial cross-subsidising in the power industry has demonstrated the need to improve the rules for calculating and granting these subsidies.

The draft envisages the approval of the adjusted rules for calculating and granting subsidies from the federal budget. The rules for calculating and granting federal budget subsidies are being adjusted to bring them into line with the Basic Principles of Pricing as Applied to Regulated Prices (Tariffs) in the Power Industry.

10. Introducing Amendments to Clause 7 in Russian Government Resolution No. 392 dated May 26, 2008

The draft provides for approving a technical amendment to the Government's resolution “On the Forming, Granting and Distributing of Federal Budget Subsidies to the Budgets of the Entities of the Russian Federation”, which links the resolution to the general rules for granting and distributing subsidies to the budgets of these entities.

11. Government's Welfare Guardianship Council for Social Issues

The council is expected to consist of 20 experts from state, public and profit organisations. It will not include representatives from the federal executive authorities. This is the first time the council has been set up in this format. It will be a consultative body tasked with examining the most vital issues of social welfare to protect people in difficult living situations, including children without parental care, the disabled, and other categories of citizens, to provide health protection, and to frame proposals for improving national policy in this sphere.

The council’s primary responsibilities will be the following:

• Help implement social national policy and promote welfare charity and guardianship;
• Take part in the elaboration and the consideration of the concepts, the programmes and the initiatives advanced by citizens, the public, and organisations on issues within the council’s competence;
• Take part in informing citizens of the activities of state welfare institutions, such as through the media, and in discussing public issues regarding their activity.

12. Introducing Amendments to the Statute on the Ministry of Industry and Trade

A Government resolution “On Amending Some Statutes of the Government of the Russian Federation on Regulating Activity in Aviation” has confirmed the Ministry of Industry and Trade's mandate to exercise state regulation in experimental aviation. However, the Ministry’s ability to fully exercise this mandate has been prevented by the absence in its regulations of a definition of the Ministry as an authorised defence industry agency, as required by a number of articles in the Air Code. This concerns the state registration of experimental aircraft, operating clearance for experimental aviation airfields, flight clearance for aircraft, and registration of additional identification marks and numbers.

13. Introducing Amendments to the Statute on the Ministry of Education and Science

The adoption of the draft resolution will vest the Ministry with the authority to establish the procedures for electronic training and distance learning when implementing educational programmes, thus enabling the Ministry to regulate relations in this sphere.

14. Introducing Amendments to the Statute on the Federal Service for Environmental, Technological and Nuclear the Supervision  

The draft resolution proposes giving a more precise name to the nuclear management authority and endows the service with the following responsibilities:

• Draw up, approve and adopt manuals on nuclear power safety;
• Take part in providing accreditation at nuclear facilities;
• Establish the procedure for conducting safety checks (testing safety criteria) at nuclear facilities and/or in nuclear energy activities;
• Establish the procedure by which an operating organisation submits documents containing the safety evaluation results of a nuclear installation or a storage facility, confirms their operating safety, and lists the requirements for compiling these documents and their contents;
• Identify the specifics of product compliance evaluation, including the safety requirements for nuclear power products and related processes.

Moscow

Oct. 3, 2012

* Press releases by the Department of Press Service and Information contain the materials submitted by the federal executive bodies for discussion by the Government of the Russian Federation.