{"id":1596,"date":"2020-12-09T12:23:17","date_gmt":"2020-12-09T12:23:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.radiofree.org\/?p=136017"},"modified":"2020-12-09T12:23:17","modified_gmt":"2020-12-09T12:23:17","slug":"russias-state-duma-approves-bill-giving-ex-presidents-and-their-families-lifetime-immunity","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/2020\/12\/09\/russias-state-duma-approves-bill-giving-ex-presidents-and-their-families-lifetime-immunity\/","title":{"rendered":"Russia&#8217;s State Duma Approves Bill Giving Ex-Presidents And Their Families Lifetime Immunity"},"content":{"rendered":"<div><img src=\"https:\/\/www.radiofree.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/7305ba11-06c1-4365-a839-643baf89acc5_w1200_r1.jpg\" class=\"ff-og-image-inserted\" \/><\/div>\n<div class=\"wsw\">\n<p>Russia\u2019s lower house of parliament has approved the final reading of a bill that would grant sweeping lifetime immunity to former presidents.<\/p>\n<p>The legislation approved by the State Duma on December 9 is part of a package of constitutional amendments approved in a referendum earlier this year that could potentially see President Vladimir Putin stay in power until 2036.<\/p>\n<p>The draft stipulates that any former head of state and their families automatically obtain lifetime immunity from criminal or administrative charges. They also cannot be detained, arrested, searched, or interrogated.<\/p>\n<p>The only exception is for treason, which must first be approved by the State Duma and the Supreme and Constitutional courts.<\/p>\n<p>Under the current law, former presidents are only immune from prosecution for crimes committed while in office.<\/p>\n<p>The legislation now must be approved by parliament&#8217;s upper chamber, the Federation Council, before heading to Putin&#8217;s desk for his signature.<\/p>\n<p>Dmitry Medvedev, who was president between 2008-2012, is Russia&#8217;s only living former president.<\/p>\n<p>The immunity amendments are widely viewed as a way to protect Putin and his family, if, or when, he steps down.<\/p>\n<h6 class=\"wsw__h6\">Based on reporting TASS and Interfax<\/h6>\n<\/div>\n\n<p class=\"syndicated-attribution\">This post was originally published on <a href=\"https:\/\/www.radiofree.org\/2020\/12\/09\/russias-state-duma-approves-bill-giving-ex-presidents-and-their-families-lifetime-immunity\/\">Radio Free<\/a>. <\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Russia\u2019s lower house of parliament has approved the final reading of a bill that would grant sweeping lifetime immunity to former presidents. The legislation approved by the State\u2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,24],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1596"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1596"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1596\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1597,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1596\/revisions\/1597"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1596"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1596"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1596"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}