The Russian government has submitted to the State Duma a package of bills, according to which it is proposed to prohibit citizens with an outstanding criminal record from working as taxi and public transport drivers.

The restriction will affect persons convicted of grave and especially grave crimes.

Corresponding amendments are being made to the Labor Code, the lower house of parliament specified.

According to the text of the amendments, persons convicted of the following crimes will not be able to drive a taxi: murder, intentional infliction of grievous bodily harm, kidnapping, robbery, robbery, crimes against sexual inviolability and sexual freedom of the individual, crimes against public security, crimes against the foundations of the constitutional order and state security, crimes against the peace and security of mankind.

Persons who have committed "crimes against public safety, the foundations of the constitutional order and security of the state, and crimes against the peace and security of mankind" will also not be able to work as drivers of public transport, if the initiative is adopted.

In accordance with the bill, when registering individual entrepreneurs for the relevant work, a certificate of no criminal record will be required for these items.

At the same time, a ban on the release of drivers convicted under these articles on the line may be introduced in the charter of road and urban transport. 

“Already working drivers of taxis, buses, trolleybuses and trams will have to provide the employer with a criminal record by March 1, 2023,” the State Duma noted.

The authors of the bill emphasized that it was developed in accordance with the instructions of the president.

They also clarified that the changes will affect not only crimes committed under the criminal legislation of Russia, but also in accordance with the laws of the countries of the Eurasian Economic Union.

“The list of crimes was prepared on the basis of proposals from law enforcement agencies, taking into account the degree of public danger, the possibility of comparing crimes provided for by the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation with the criminal codes of foreign EAEU member states, as well as taking into account statistical information on the number of convicted persons and recidivism of crimes received from the Ministry of Justice of Russia ", - says the explanatory note.

  • AGN "Moscow"

  • © Sergey Vedyashkin

The partner of the Autostat analytical agency, auto expert Igor Morzharetto, in an interview with RT, positively assessed the initiative, but expressed the opinion that the security services in each transport company should be involved in a criminal record.

“They are interested in having proven people behind the wheel,” the expert noted.

In turn, autoexpert, editor-in-chief of the magazine "Behind the wheel" Maxim Kadakov said that a person's criminal record does not always mean that it will somehow affect his work as a driver.

“The idea is correct, although it seems to me that there is no direct dependence, correlation on whether a person had a criminal record and how he drives a transport, what kind of driver he can be in public transport.

People who are crystal clear before the law can drive disgracefully and, conversely, a person who has served time may well be an adequate driver and a completely reliable person, "Kadakov said in a conversation with RT.

Earlier, the Ministry of Transport proposed not to allow persons who have accumulated more than three unpaid fines for traffic violations to drive passenger taxis.

The corresponding draft federal law is posted on the official portal of draft regulatory legal acts.

The agency also proposed to prohibit working as taxi drivers for citizens who have not passed certification for knowledge of the location of transport infrastructure, cultural heritage, health care, education and sports facilities, as well as access routes to them.

In addition, according to the proposal of the Ministry of Transport, drivers should know how to act in an emergency.

"The bill provides for the powers of the Russian government to establish the composition of administrative offenses, if a certain number of which is committed over the past year, it will also be prohibited to drive a passenger taxi," the explanatory note says.