Kremlin announces new penalties (12/26/82)

Kremlin announces new penalties

MOSCOW - The Kremlin announced on December 18 harsh new fines and prison terms, including forced labor, for a wide range of crimes, reported the Associated Press. The announcement came just one day after a reshuffling of the leadership of the Soviet security systems.

The criminal penalties and the leadership changes in the KGB and the Ministry of Internal Affairs announced in the five weeks since Yuri Andropov took power are part of a government campaign aimed at tighter control over officials, and also signals a harsher life for the country's 270 million citizens.

The government newspaper Izvestia reported on December 18 that a Central Committee decree effective January 1 imposes fines ranging from the equivalent of $240 (well over a month's pay for most Soviet workers) to $1,400 for economic crimes such as profiteering.

The newspaper also said that judges have been ordered to assign more convicts to forced-labor brigades for up to two years instead of sending them to prison.

It said the decree imposed stiffer prison terms for crimes ranging from auto theft to stealing public property - a provision apparently aimed at corrupt officials.

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