Lidiya Titova, INMATE's mother:

"The prisons are overcrowded, and many boys sit it out for practically nothing : Many young boys get in jail for drugs, but many have simply been framed. The amnesty is a way out. Just look at those in the cells. They're all in their early 20s."

Nadezhda Markina, lawyer:

"The people to be released should be the ones who should not have been there in the first place: pregnant women, kids, handicapped and pensioners. No other state would let a dying pensioner go to jail. Amnesty should be for those in jail ... for the first time, who served part of their term and earned a good record."

NIKITA ANDRYUSHCHENKO,

STUDENT

"The problem of lack of space in prisons should be resolved otherwise. Amnesty is just a way to relieve prisons of the numbers. The authorities announce an amnesty and tie it up to some public event. They have to be careful about who they release ... They simply empty the place and fill it up with new inmates."

Alexander Popovsky,

jourNalist:

"Amnesty is a positive thing for the state, maybe it will make it look good. But not for those who suffered from criminals. They at the top do not understand our way of life. If people kill the likes of themselves, they cease to be humans. They have to be isolated. One cannot talk of amnesty here."

YurY Kostyukov, builder:

"Amnesty will make it better for at least some people. Prisons are overcrowded, and many go there for no reason whatsoever. [It's often] a death sentence - petty crimials dying of TB and many other diseases that infest our prisons."

Serafima Tyutina, pensioner:

"Let them go if they don't cause much harm. Of course, being a grandmother, I would worry about my grandchildren [if criminals got out of prison]. But amnesty should happen; maybe someone has a grandchild in prison and she worries about him, too."