The State Duma in Moscow adopted at its plenary session in the third, last reading, a draft law that allows confiscation of property and assets of persons guilty of “discrediting” the armed forces and other activities “against state security”, reports TASS. .

The draft law was adopted by the Moscow parliament in an emergency manner, which was announced by the head of the State Duma, Vyacheslav Volodin, on January 20, introduced to the parliament on January 22, voted on in the first reading on January 24, and approved on Wednesday. after the second and third reading.

Volodin said that this is a project “about scoundrels and traitors, about those who today spat on the backs of our soldiers and betrayed the Motherland.”

The head of the State Duma strongly condemns “traitors” inside Russia

“Our country, the citizens of this country did everything so that they (no “Russian traitors”) lived comfortably, received honorary titles, awards, and property. And today they are using these funds and property to destroy the country, betraying it, betraying its soldiers, officers, pouring mud and criticizing them,” he thundered in a speech to colleagues in the parliament.

“That’s why we are adopting a law in which definitions will be given for the first time, norms will be introduced into the Criminal Code, which will allow them to be prosecuted. This is the case in all countries where traitors are treated more harshly, but not here [în Rusia] they get a second or third citizenship. At the same time, sources of income are used to harm our country,” Volodin added to Russian lawmakers.

Parliamentarian, first deputy head of the State Duma legislative commission Iryna Pankina, in her turn, stated that this form of confiscation is not a type of “punishment” but a “criminal-legal measure”.

“It would seem a small, but fundamentally significant nuance that distinguishes the Soviet variant of confiscation, when you could confiscate anything, from today’s confiscation, the purpose of which is to confiscate the instruments of crime, what was acquired through crime. This is money, valuables, property,” she tried to explain.

“And it will just have to be proven. That is, not every property is confiscated, but only that which is directly related to one or another crime,” she added.

Russian dissidents may lose property if they pass on so-called “false information”

Although the law does not provide for the absolute confiscation of all assets of a convicted person, but for the confiscation of his money and funds “used or intended” to finance “criminal” activities, critics of the draft have noted that these wordings are too vague. from a legal and interpretative point of view.

The law also requires judicial authorities to revoke all state awards awarded to individuals convicted of “spreading false information.”

The charge of spreading “false information” about the Russian armed forces carries a maximum penalty of 15 years in prison, and over the past two years, hundreds of ordinary Russians have been convicted under this article of the Criminal Code.

The Russian parliament criminalized criticism of the military shortly after the invasion of Ukraine began on February 24, 2022. Subsequently, the scope of the law was expanded to also “protect” all Russian state institutions operating abroad.

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