MOSCOW, January 9 (Itar-Tass) — Russian President Vladimir Putin submitted a bill, which is aimed at a tougher struggle against fixed matches, in the State Duma. The text of the bill, which envisages several amendments in the law on physical culture and sports, the Criminal Code and the Tax Code, several other legislative acts, was included in the electronic database of the lower house of Russian parliament.
The bill envisages higher fines for bribing athletes, referees and the chief executives of the teams “to exert illegal influence on the result...or making or talking the foresaid people into exerting such influence or engaging in a conspiracy with them for the same goals.” “If now these offences are fined up to 200,000 roubles or the salary or other incomes of the convict for the period of up to 18 months, it is planned to set these fines from 300,000 to 500,000 roubles per month or the salary or other incomes for the period from one to three years,” the bill runs.
The bill imposed a ban on the illegal influence on the results of official sport events of different levels. The bribing of athletes, referees, coaches, chief executives of the sport teams, other participants or organizers of competitions, as well as making or talking them into exerting such influence or engaging in a conspiracy with them. Meanwhile, “the bribes in the form of money, securities and other property” is considered as an impact to obtain the predetermined result of the match.
If the document is adopted, the sport federations will have to ban people, who are suspected or accused of illegal influence on their results, from participating in the competitions, as well as in case of an indictment to impose sanctions on them, including the sport disqualification. If the facts of fixed matches are exposed the sport federations will have to inform the appropriate authorities about it.
The athletes, coaches and referees will be forbidden to make stakes in the bookmaking offices and totalizators on the results of competitions on relevant kinds of sport. All-Russia and regional sport federations, which do not perform the duties to avert the illegal influence on the results of the matches, are offered to be dropped from the register of the accredited federations.
The explanatory note emphasized that this influence is usually exerted to obtain major incomes. Meanwhile, one of the main ways to obtain them is the making of the stakes in the bookmaking offices and totalizators at those sport events, on which the deliberate agreement was reached on their results or their outcome. In this respect, the president offered to amend the law on the state regulation of the activities to arrange for and play the gambling games and on the amendments in several Russian legislative acts. The president also proposed to fix a mechanism, which promotes the exposure of the facts of illegal impact on the results of official sport events and people, who exert this impact.
In particular, a gambler can make stakes at the bookmaking offices and totalizators and can receive the win from the stake, if the latter produces an identity card. The gambling organizers in the foresaid gambling houses are to inform the all-Russia sport federations on the relevant kind of sport and the taxation services about the wins paid to them or those to be paid to them over the betting results for official sport events, which ended with the least probable outcome.
To control whether this information was complete and reliable the bookmakers are also to register the participants in the gambling games that make stakes on official sport events and submit the data of registration in the taxation services. For the non-fulfilment of these duties the bill envisages a fine of up to one million roubles.