MOSCOW (AP) - Russia's lower house of parliament decided Tuesday to rush through consideration of a Kremlin-proposed amnesty for Chechen rebels who lay down their arms, scheduling all required three readings of the bill for the following day.
The State Duma vote on Wednesday comes less than a week after Russian President Vladimir Putin proposed the measure and urged lawmakers to give it priority attention. Approval is almost assured because of a pro-Kremlin majority in the Duma.
Calling it an act of humanism, Putin put the amnesty before lawmakers on the same week that two suicide attacks in Chechnya killed at least 78 people.
The attacks belied the Kremlin's oft-stated position that normal life was returning to Chechnya, especially in the aftermath of claimed overwhelming Chechen approval in March for a Kremlin-backed constitution. The constitution confirms Chechnya's status as part of Russia, and Moscow portrayed the vote as a key step toward peace.
Ahead of the constitutional referendum, Putin told Chechens in a rare televised address that their approval would boost the chances of parliamentary passage of an amnesty for former rebels.
Putin said last week that the amnesty would apply to those rebels who had laid down their weapons over the decade ending on Aug. 1 this year, but would not cover foreigners or Russian citizens who were guilty of murder, kidnapping, rape or other especially serious crimes.
Those conditions mean the amnesty is unlikely to affect almost all of the main rebel leaders, who the Kremlin considers outright terrorists and refuses to engage in negotiations.
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