Putin comments on what awaits Russians who return from abroad: ‘It depends how they behaved’

Russian President Vladimir Putin said that attitudes toward Russians who return from abroad will depend on how they behaved in relation to Russia.

During a press conference following a CIS Council of Heads of State meeting in Bishkek, journalists asked Putin to comment on oligarch Mikhail Fridman’s return to Russia.

Putin said that “our future depends on what we do today.” According to him, this applies to those both inside, and outside, Russia. He noted that “we have a free country,” people have the right to choose where they live, and he doesn’t see “anything amoral” about that.

As for the question about the behaviour of one person or another, their actions. If their actions are such that they violate the laws in force in Russia, then obviously each person will have to answer for this, wherever they are — here or abroad.

What awaits one person or another upon their return to their homeland? This also depends on how they behaved. It’s one thing to break the law, but it’s another to break some kind of moral and ethical norms in relation to their homeland. If in the minds of the vast majority, not some part of some elite, but the vast majority of citizens, a person behaved amorally in relation to Russia, then of course they will feel this when they come back here. What else? (Quoted by Interfax.)