The new bill was introduced to the State Duma of Russian Federation, which forces the convict to pay damages to the victim in order to apply for parole.

The bill makes it virtually impossible for those who have been convicted for economic crimes to be freed on parole. The case of Platon Levedev, former head of Meatep, is highlighted as a prime example, stating that he will not be able to apply for parole due to the damage compensation he was ordered to pay.

The new bill significantly tightens the procedure for granting parole. The project prepared by the Ministry of Justice, suggests amending the Criminal, Penal, and Criminal Procedure Codes and interlinking the parole procedure with the damage compensation.

In other words, the parole will not be issued if the convicted had failed to pay debts set by the court.

“I do not exclude the possibility that partially the new bill was prepared to fit Khodorkovsky and Lebedev”, – said Khodorkovsky’s lawyer Yuri Schmidt in his interview to Russian newspaper Novye Izvestiya. – “There are many effective ways to avoid granting parole, the new project developers did not need to try so hard.”

In 2011 Lebedev was denied early release by the courts, it was cited that he had several disciplinary penalties from the administration of the colony, had refused to admit his guilt and had not paid the damage compensation to the state which amounted to more than 17 billion roubles.

Please find more information (in Russian) here