MOSCOW, June 25 (RAPSI) - A draft law on granting amnesties for economic crimes initiated by President Vladimir Putin has been submitted to the State Duma, according to a statement posted on its website on Tuesday.

On June 21, Putin called on Russia's lower house to grant amnesties before the summer recess for those with first-time convictions for economic crimes who have either reimbursed the damages or have expressed a willingness to do so. 

The State Duma will meet for the last time on July 5 before leaving for their summer recess on July 14.

Yevgenia Chugunova, press secretary of State Duma Speaker Sergei Naryshkin, said they have received draft resolutions on the amnesty and on the procedure for implementing the resolution on the amnesty. 

Naryshkin has sent the two drafts to Pavel Krasheninnikov, Chair of the State Duma Committee on Civil, Criminal, Arbitral and Procedural Legislation, as well as to all parties represented in the lower house and also to the State Duma Council, Chugunova said.

The idea of a financial amnesty has been discussed for the past two years and was championed by Business Ombudsman Boris Titov, who proposed it as a means to improve the business climate. 

In particular, he pleaded with the State Duma to release 111,000 businesspeople from prison, arguing that many of them had been pressured into breaking the law by flawed and overly strict financial regulations.