Anyone ‘discrediting’ army or spreading ‘false information’ to face confiscation of assets

Legislation has been introduced to the State Duma granting the Russian state powers to confiscate property from anyone found guilty of various crimes typically used against government critics and anti-war protesters, according to the lower house of parliament’s website on Monday.

The legislation will modify several articles of the Russian Criminal Code simultaneously — including the sections criminalising “discrediting” the Russian army, calling for terrorism or for the imposition of sanctions on Russia, disseminating “false information” about the military, and participating in “activities directed against national security”.

If the bills are adopted, which is virtually certain as a majority of Duma deputies have already put their names to the legislation, the Russian state will be empowered to seize property, cash and other assets from anyone found guilty of committing the above crimes “for personal gain”.

Vyacheslav Volodin, Speaker of the State Duma, Russia’s lower house of parliament, said that the amendments were aimed at “cultural figures who support Nazis” and who “sully the name of our country and its soldiers”.

At present, property can only be confiscated from somebody if it is judged to have been acquired illegally or used to commit a crime.

Since the beginning of the war in Ukraine, some 273 criminal cases have been opened for disseminating falsehoods about the Russian military.