Russia’s investigative chief laments that children can’t be jailed from age 12
Russia’s top investigator has called for lowering the age of criminal responsibility to 12, saying the proposal has so far been rejected.
“We proposed lowering the age of criminal responsibility to 12, but they didn’t agree with us,” Alexander Bastrykin, head of the Investigative Committee, said at the St. Petersburg Legal Forum on June 26.
Bastrykin argued that teenagers today mature far more quickly and are already committing crimes at 12 or 13, yet escape criminal liability without punishment.
He also said students attacked schools in Russia six times in 2025, and eight such incidents have already been recorded since the start of 2026.
Over the past year, there have been repeated calls in Russia to lower the age of criminal responsibility. In December 2025, Leonid Slutsky, the leader of the LDPR, proposed lowering the age of criminal liability to 12 for sexual offenses against minors and murder.
In January 2026, Alexey Zinchuk, a lawmaker in Saint Petersburg’s legislative assembly from the Communist Party of the Russian Federation, proposed making children as young as 13 criminally liable for offenses including murder, kidnapping, rape, theft, and terrorism.
In 2025, Alexander Bastrykin proposed lowering the age of criminal liability for drug trafficking offenses from 16 to 14.
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