Deputies of the State Duma of the Russian Federation adopted in the first reading a draft law that removes criminal responsibility for

crimes

in the temporarily occupied territories of Ukraine, if they were committed for the sake of "protecting the interests of Russia".

As "Krym. Realii" writes, the explanatory note to the draft law states that the law will apply to criminal acts

committed before September 30, 2022

in parts of Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions.

The documents do not specify which criminal offenses should be interpreted as committed in favor of Russia.

In addition, according to the draft law, actions for which responsibility is provided for by the legislation of Ukraine "if they contain signs of a crime provided for by the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation, but were aimed at protecting the interests of the Russian Federation and citizens and organizations of the Russian Federation" in the above-listed temporarily occupied territories will not be considered crimes of Ukraine.

As Kommersant reports, according to the draft law, courts are not expected to operate in the temporarily occupied territories of Ukraine until at least 2027.

Russia also refuses to compensate for the damage suffered by the inhabitants of the territories before their occupation.

The authors of this draft law are Andriy Klishas, ​​a member of the Federation Council of the Russian Federation, and Pavlo Krasheninnikov, a deputy.

Amendments to it will be accepted until December 17.

"The country essentially declares: 'Commit any crimes to protect my interests, I will forgive you everything'. This is simply barbarism," the Advokatska vulytsia publication quotes lawyer Mykhailo Benyash as saying.

Attempted annexation of four regions of Ukraine

On September 30, in the Kremlin, Russian President Vladimir Putin announced an attempt to 

annex

 Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson, and Zaporizhzhia regions based on the results of fake referendums held by the occupiers in these regions.

Later, Putin 

issued another delusion

 that the results of the pseudo-referendums in the occupied territories of Ukraine were supposedly transparent and "not subject to any doubt."

On November 23, the European Parliament 

recognized Russia as a state sponsor of terrorism.

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