GORKI, February 14 - RAPSI. President Dmitry Medvedev highlighted the liberalization of the judicial practice in Russia, including in the criminal cases. The president expressed such opinion at the meeting with Supreme Court Chairman Vyacheslav Lebedev, who cited the judicial statistics for 2011.

He noted that rigid repressions should be applied when necessary, and punitive measures should be adequate to the gravity of committed crimes, particularly, high crimes and violent crimes.

During the meeting Lebedev said that the total number of arrests was reduced by 13,000, and the reduction in arrests is even more considerable compared to the 2001 data. Particularly, the Supreme Court chairman said that in 2001 when prosecutors sanctioned arrests, some 366,000 arrests were made. Meanwhile, the number dropped to 136,000 when judges were granted the right to sanction arrests in 2011.

Applications on arrests regarding entrepreneurs were sanctioned in 56 cases, and were dismissed in 68. The total amount of bails, according to the Supreme Court stood at 41 million rubles ($1.367 million).