Russian Victims of Crime Can’t Get Compensation Now that Putin has Given Criminals Immunity if They Go to Fight in Ukraine, Experts Say

Paul Goble
    Staunton, Nov. 15 – Now that Putin has given criminals immunity if they agree to go to fight in Ukraine, victims of their crimes have been deprived of the opportunity to get compensation for the losses they have suffered, according to two leaders of the Foundation for the Support of Victims of Crime.
    Matvey Goncharov, executive director of that organization, and Aleksandr Koshkin, an expert there, say that Putin’s action not only deprives people of a sense of justice and allows criminals to return to civilian life and commit more crimes but also strips innocent victims of the right to seek recovery for damages (sovsekretno.ru/articles/bezopasnost/polnyy-immunitet/).
    Even though the right to compensation is guaranteed to victims of crime in the Russian Constitution, they say, the powers that be have not seldom supported that right in fact. Now, with the new “get out of jail free” card that Putin has offered the criminals, that constitutional right has largely disappeared.