Interfax: Amnesty declared is compromise – Russian human rights commissioner Lukin

MOSCOW. Dec 18 (Interfax) – The amnesty declared by the State Duma should be considered clemency and another amnesty over 100th anniversary since the World War I began should be declared in 2014, Russian human rights commissioner Vladimir Lukin said.

“I treat positively any measures of the state aimed at easing the fate of people,” Lukin told Interfax regarding the amnesty.

“This amnesty is a variant chosen by the state,” the commissioner said. The initial variant, drafted by the Presidential Human Rights Council, proposed a wider amnesty, Lukin said.

“Evidently the state assumes that many in the country treat amnesties negatively and think that a thief should be in prison. The current amnesty is a compromise,” Lukin said.

“The human rights commissioner would not be one if he did not ask for a wide amnesty. I hope that this is not the first and not the last amnesty. I propose to draft carefully the amnesty for the 100th anniversary since the World War I began, in which huge number of people died. Probably it would be right to ease the fate of someone from our generation,” the commissioner said.