New law: Putin also wants to expropriate dissidents Israel thinks it is on the trail of Hamas leader – an overview of the night

“The law on bastards has been passed,” Vyacheslav Volodin rejoiced. The strident chairman of the State Duma, the lower house of the Russian parliament, announced this two weeks ago. Everyone present at the meeting – almost 80 percent of all Duma deputies – voted in favor of the law that would allow the state to confiscate property, medals and titles of critics of the regime.

Russian President Vladimir Putin also signed the changes on Wednesday. This means that another rubber-stamp paragraph comes into effect, which is intended primarily to deter Russian emigrants and is primarily targeted. They should not feel safe anywhere outside their country.

Imprisonment alone is no longer sufficient for the regime to punish the political views of people it is unwilling to tolerate. With the expropriation law, she mainly wants to take revenge on those who condemn the war, which is still not officially allowed to be called a war in Russia, but rather a ‘special military operation’, and who have left the country by the hundreds. thousands.

“They live prosperous lives, rent out their properties and continue to receive their royalties at the expense of Russian citizens. With this money they support the Nazi regime in Ukraine. They pollute our country with dirt and feel impunity abroad. “They probably believe that the legal system cannot reach them,” Volodin wrote before the hearing in the State Duma.

He was referring to well-known Russian show stars and opposition figures now living abroad. He calls anyone who even dares to question Russia’s attack on Ukraine “bastards” and “traitors.” Volodin repeatedly claims that parliament simply fulfills a “need in society” and that its restrictions correspond to the will of the people.

The law is deliberately formulated vaguely

With the tightening of the law, more crimes than before can now be punished with the seizure of property. These include, in particular, the “dissemination of deliberate false information about the Russian military” and “public calls for activities aimed against the security of the state.” These include: desertion, illegal border crossing, espionage, high treason, secret cooperation with foreign organizations, assistance in drawing up sanctions lists, rehabilitation of National Socialism (according to the official Russian approach, this includes all statements in support of Ukraine).

The law – like many Russian laws – is vaguely worded. The judiciary thus expands the scope of the paragraphs. Ultimately, no one knows what he is committing a crime with. The randomness is intentional. In addition to the often disproportionately long prison sentences, the stricter measures now ensure that the property with which they committed the alleged crime is confiscated.

The state can also seize money they received as a result of the crime they are accused of. This could be the mobile phone of someone who posts something critical of the regime, or the fee of a journalist who writes about Ukraine and thus spreads “false news about the Russian army” in the eyes of the Russian judiciary. Anyone who “endangers the security of the state” can have the car purchased long before the “crime” confiscated.

The law may not be applied retroactively. So far. Members of Parliament who hastily voted for it believe that they are protecting Russian citizens, “our children and grandchildren,” as said by Irina Yarovaya, who introduced the law in the State Duma, like so many other discriminatory proposals before it.

The stricter measures are part of the policy that seeks revenge and tries to overcome its powerlessness against those who think differently with increasingly radical repression. A policy that is based on threats and sows fear among Russians at home and abroad. (aargauerzeitung.ch)