MOSCOW, December 25 (Itar-Tass) — The Russian government opposed the confiscation of the cars from drunken drivers, the press service of the Russian government reported on Tuesday. “The Russian government submitted in the State Duma an official response to the bill introducing the amendments in Article 12.8 of the Russian Code of Administrative Offences, which State Duma deputy Sergei Ivanov moved in,” the government said in a statement.
Meanwhile, it is specified that the Cabinet “did not support this bill.” LDPR deputy Ivanov has earlier made the proposal to confiscate the vehicles from drunk drivers.
Meanwhile, the government has recently supported another bill, which Chairwoman of the State Duma Security Committee Irina Yarovaya had drafted. According to the bill, if the driver knocked a person to death while being drunk, he can be sentenced from two to ten years in prison. The maximum sentence for this crime is seven years now. If as a result of such road accident two or more people are killed, the term in prison can be from five to 15 years (up to nine years now). The author of the bill also offered to exclude such type of punishment as correctional works.
The Criminal Code is planned to be supplemented with a new article, under which a person without the driving license that was driving drunk can be fined 200,000 roubles or arrested for up to six months.
Yarovaya also proposes to raise substantially the fines for those, who got behind the wheel drunk. According to the effective Code of Administrative Offences, the culprit for this crime can be stripped of driving license for a term of up to two years. The bill also envisages levying a fine of 50,000 roubles. If a person was driving being drunk and already stripped of driving license, he can be arrested for 15 days or fined 30,000 roubles.
According to the legislative initiative, the tests for drunkenness “should be confirmed with the use of special technical equipment, particularly that for film and video recording.”