Deputy Prime Minister of Russia Marat Khusnullin instructed the departments to develop proposals by November 1 to introduce criminal liability for the very fact of drunk driving and life deprivation of rights for repeat offenders. This was reported on October 12 by Kommersant.
“Sitting behind the wheel in such a (drunk – Ed.) State, a person poses a threat to the lives of road users, so I have instructed to consider the possibility of toughening penalties, up to criminal punishment,” said Khusnullin.
At a meeting of the government commission on road safety, he instructed the Ministry of Internal Affairs, the Ministry of Health and the Ministry of Justice to submit “agreed proposals” on the introduction of criminal liability for drunk drivers by November 1, “taking into account the degree of intoxication.” Currently, the maximum allowable rate is 0.16 mg alcohol per liter of exhalation, or 0.3 g per liter of blood.
In addition, the Deputy Prime Minister instructed to work out the possibility of life-long deprivation of rights for drivers who have repeatedly sat behind the wheel in a state of intoxication. According to Khusnullin, 88% of all deaths in road accidents due to drunk driving are associated with the fact that the perpetrators of the accident have more than one ppm of alcohol in their blood (or 1 g per liter).
Earlier, on July 1, Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a law increasing the prison sentence to three years for repeated drunk driving. On June 9, the draft law in the third, final reading was adopted at a meeting of the State Duma. Among other things, the authors of the bill proposed to increase the amount of the fine from 300 thousand to 500 thousand instead of the established 200-300 thousand rubles.
On June 30, the head of the Main Directorate for Traffic Safety of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation, Police Lieutenant General Mikhail Chernikov, said that in Russia the number of accidents involving drunk drivers had decreased by almost 40% over the five months of this year. According to him, this is the result of systemic measures.