Anatoly Pristavkin has passed away
Ушел из жизни писатель и правозащитник Анатолий Приставкин. С 1992 по 2001 год он возглавлял комиссию по помилованию при президенте России. Десятки тысяч людей благодаря его заступничеству обрели свободу. Комиссия была распущена президентом Путиным, и в прошлом году не был помилован ни один заключенный (Подробнее).
Anatoly Pristavkin, a writer who headed the president's pardons commission throughout the 1990s, died Friday in Moscow. He was 76.
Pristavkin headed the Presidential Pardons Commission from its creation in 1992 until 2001, when it was abolished by then-President Vladimir Putin.
Under President Boris Yeltsin, the commission, which included human rights activists, met every week to go through files containing the histories of hundreds of people stuck in overcrowded prisons and decided whom to recommend for pardoning.
On the commission's recommendations, more than 70,000 people were pardoned over nine years. After Putin abolished the commission, the responsibility for pardons was passed to regional governments and the number of pardons dropped. Only 72 people were pardoned in 2004, 42 in 2005, nine in 2006 and none last year.
Pristavkin, who wrote 26 books, is best known for "A Golden Cloud Spent the Night," published in 1987 and based on the story of his childhood in an orphanage.
From The Moscow Times, 14 July 2008.
Anatoly Pristavkin, a writer who headed the president's pardons commission throughout the 1990s, died Friday in Moscow. He was 76.
Pristavkin headed the Presidential Pardons Commission from its creation in 1992 until 2001, when it was abolished by then-President Vladimir Putin.
Under President Boris Yeltsin, the commission, which included human rights activists, met every week to go through files containing the histories of hundreds of people stuck in overcrowded prisons and decided whom to recommend for pardoning.
On the commission's recommendations, more than 70,000 people were pardoned over nine years. After Putin abolished the commission, the responsibility for pardons was passed to regional governments and the number of pardons dropped. Only 72 people were pardoned in 2004, 42 in 2005, nine in 2006 and none last year.
Pristavkin, who wrote 26 books, is best known for "A Golden Cloud Spent the Night," published in 1987 and based on the story of his childhood in an orphanage.
From The Moscow Times, 14 July 2008.