On Wednesday, Russian deputies voted in the first reading of a bill aimed at confiscating the money and property of any person guilty of spreading “false information” about the army, AFP reports, writes Agerpres.

The document is yet another illustration of the measures taken to suppress criticism of the Kremlin nearly two years after the full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

According to the President of the State Duma (the lower house of the Russian federal parliament) Vyacheslav Volodin, 395 deputies voted for the text, without specifying how many of the 450 deputies abstained or voted against.

In fact, the bill does not provide for the absolute confiscation of all assets of a convicted person, but for the confiscation of his money and funds that were “used or intended” to finance “criminal” activities, the terms of which remain very vague.

“Everyone who tries to destroy Russia and betray it must suffer the deserved punishment and compensate the damage caused to the country,” Volodin said on the social network on Saturday.

This measure should also make it possible to punish “scoundrels” who “polluted our country and soldiers” hired in Ukraine, he insisted.

The text also provides for the provision of justice to deprive all state awards of persons convicted of “spreading false information”.

The charge of spreading “false information” about the Russian military carries a maximum penalty of 15 years in prison. Over the past two years, several hundred ordinary Russians have been convicted under this article of the Criminal Code.

Moscow outlawed criticism of the military soon after the invasion of Ukraine began on February 24, 2022.