MOSCOW. Feb 25 (Interfax) - President Dmitry Medvedev signed into law a bill to mitigate punishment for non-serious crimes, the Kremlin said on Wednesday.
Convicts will have their imprisonment deferred and put on probation if they are pregnant women, women having a child aged under 14 and men who are single parents and have a child aged under 14 under the new law, the Russian president's office said.
They may, however, have their probation cut short and be put in jail if they formally renounce their parental rights or neglect their parental duties after a warning from the probation authority.
If they comply with the terms of their probation, they may have their probation period reduced and their conviction quashed and removed from their personal records. However, one cannot have one's probation period reduced before the expiration of the period equivalent to that of their suspended imprisonment.
The new law, which does not apply to serious offenders, was passed by the State Duma and approved by the Federation Council on February 17.