In a letter to State Duma Speaker Gennady Seleznyov, President Putin said that reform of criminal legislation “would be incomplete without introducing criminal responsibility for trafficking in people and related crimes”.
“Experts say human trafficking is part of organised crime and ranks with illicit trafficking in drugs and terrorism as a social danger,” the message said. “The Convention against Transnational Organised Crime and its Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, Especially Women and Children, adopted by the UN General Assembly in December 2000, have defined the duties of states in dealing with trafficking in people, including the duty to adopt a law providing for severe criminal punishment for the relevant offences.
“The Criminal Code of the Russian Federation lacks a systemic legislative treatment of this problem, which creates the possibility of such a dangerous phenomenon as trafficking in persons growing with impunity.”