MOSCOW, April 27 (RAPSI) – Russia’s Human Rights Commissioner Tatiana Moskalkova insists that there is a need to adopt a regulation legally defining the current regime of restrictive measures introduced because of the pandemic, which would envisage in particular changes in the approach to periods of limitation.

There is a pressing need to collect applications of citizens, to monitor the situation and preventively adopt a regulation or a law defining the legal status of the current regime, Moskalkova observes. Russia’s citizens are still at loss about the regime they live under as it is not an emergency situation regime, it is a complex of restrictive measures; however, it is to remember that in the post-crisis period to come, these questions are to be answered, the ombudsman notes.

According to Moskalkova, a problem to be encountered after the pandemic is the calculation of periods of limitation as not all citizens are well versed in digital technologies, whereas visiting lawyers is restricted, so, may these circumstances be accepted as mitigating ones, she asks.

The ombudsman has also noted that periods of limitation play an important role in the criminal and administrative processes. If witnesses cannot come to courtrooms or visit investigators because of the restrictions, how then detentions are to be extended, Moskalkova wonders.

She has turned to the Justice Ministry urging it to analyze how the approaches to periods of limitations need to be changed because of the pandemic.