MOSCOW (AP) – Russia’s lower house of parliament on Wednesday will allow authorities to confiscate money, valuables and other assets from people convicted of spreading “deliberately false information” about the country’s military. approved a bill to do so.
The bill passed quickly in the State Duma and is now expected to quickly pass the Senate and receive the signature of Russian President Vladimir Putin.
The Speaker of the State Duma, Vyacheslav Volodin, said the measure would strengthen punishment for “traitors who threw dirt on our country and our armed forces” and would “remove the miscreants of their honorary titles and deprive them of property, money and other valuables.” “It will be confiscated,” he said.
The new law applies to people convicted of publicly inciting “extremist activities” that call for acts that endanger national security or “discredit” the military. After the Russian government sent troops to Ukraine in February 2022, a law adopted as part of the government’s sweeping crackdown on dissent made it a criminal offense to discredit the Russian military.
“Everyone who tries to betray Russia, who tries to destroy Russia, must receive the deserved punishment and pay reparations for the damage they have caused to the country at the cost of their property,” Volodin said before Wednesday’s vote. Ta.
Unlike strict Soviet-era laws that allowed foreclosures on homes, the bill does not appear to include real estate among the assets subject to seizure.
“We do not want to reinstate Soviet-style confiscation. It is not necessary,” Pavel Krasheninnikov, chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, told reporters.
Russian officials are using an existing law against “defaming” the military, which covers crimes such as “justifying terrorism” and spreading “fake news” about the military, to harass Putin’s critics. I’ve been silenced. Several activists, bloggers, and ordinary Russians received long prison sentences.
