MOSCOW, January 25 (RAPSI) – The State Duma Committee on Civil, Criminal, Commercial and Procedural Law has recommended that the lower house pass in the first reading a bill adjusting Russian Criminal Code aimed at decriminalizing a number of offences, RIA Novosti reported Monday.

Under the bill, administrative sanctions instead of criminal penalties are proposed in particular for such offences as battery, threat of homicide or injury, malicious evasion from payment of alimony, use of forged documents.

President Vladimir Putin in his annual address to members of the parliament on December 3 asked lawmakers to endorse the Supreme Court’s initiative to decriminalize some articles of the Criminal Code. Putin said that the law must be harsh to those who committed heavy crimes as well as “be humane to those who made a false step”.