Why a refusal is a working document
A refusal of parole is not the end of the process. A fresh application may be made after six months, and the refusal decision states its reasons — which makes it, in practice, a checklist. If an outstanding civil claim was mentioned, it should be settled. If a disciplinary sanction was cited, it should be lifted and time allowed to pass. If the intended place of residence was unanswered, it should be answered with documents.
Most of the successful parole applications in our practice are second applications prepared in exactly this way.
What courts actually decide on
The statutory test in Article 79 is whether the person still needs to serve the full sentence in order to be corrected. In practice the decision rests on a documented picture: the conduct record across the whole sentence, incentives, work, education, the position of the facility administration and of the prosecutor, and — most decisively in our experience — whether the victim's civil claim has been paid.
The additional obstacle for foreign nationals
Courts frequently refuse parole to foreign nationals on the reasoning that there is no established place of residence in Russia and no means of supervision. It has to be answered rather than ignored: with documentation of the intended residence, with the position on removal from the country, and with evidence of family or employer support.