Absentee fine with confiscation

The legislator will continue the hunt for the property of Russians who have left. The restless State Council of Tatarstan went on the attack

The TASS agency, citing the chairman of the State Council of the Republic of Tatarstan Committee on Law and Order, Alexander Chubarov (on the council’s website he is listed as the deputy chairman of this committee), reported that a bill on administrative fines for persons not located in Russia has been submitted to the State Duma of the Russian Federation.

Article 1.8 of the Code of Administrative Offenses on the effect of its norms in space in the current version allows individuals not located in the Russian Federation to be held accountable only when committing an offense on the territory of states with which the Russian Federation has maintained international agreements. Such agreements have been terminated with most European countries. The proposal of the State Council of Tatarstan, according to Chubarov, already approved by the government of the Russian Federation, is to apply liability in the form of fines under the articles with which the Code of Administrative Offenses was supplemented after February 24, 2022 (on discrediting the Armed Forces, etc.), regardless of the place where the offense was committed . The document also proposes to establish a procedure for trial in absentia under these articles of the Code of Administrative Offenses, as is already widely used under similar articles of the Criminal Code.

In January of this year, for such political cases, the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation introduced “confiscation of the instruments of crime and the profit made with their help” as an additional punishment (this mechanism is described in detail on the Novaya website). The proposed amendments to the Code of Administrative Offenses continue this logic, but not all the way: within the framework of this code (Article 3.7), confiscation can only be applied to the instruments or objects of an administrative offense, but not to the profit made.

The exclusion from this list of “other property” that may remain with a political emigrant on the territory of the Russian Federation means that the “slanderer” can actually only face a fine of 30 to 50 thousand rubles. according to Art. 20.3.3 Code of Administrative Offences. However, as Chubarov explained to TASS, “in order to prevent evasion of responsibility, it is proposed to seize the property of the person against whom the proceedings are being conducted.”

The draft does not stipulate whether the size of the property seized will correspond to the amount of the fine. Within the framework of the general repressive logic, this may make it possible to limit emigrated and silent Russians in the use of any property belonging to them on the territory of the Russian Federation, especially since in order to pay a fine (for example, by a remaining relative), additional difficulties can be created at the level of regulation of banking activities (we call this technique connection - see details on our website, January 27 this year).

Alexander Chubarov, apparently behind this project, is the former head of the legal service of the Ministry of Internal Affairs for the Republic of Tatarstan, a colonel of internal affairs. He became a deputy of the State Council of the Republic of Tatarstan in 2019, and now, probably, expects to enter the State Duma of the Russian Federation on his proposals.