Foreign agents will be presented with an invoice

A bill has been submitted to the Duma that does not limit “foreign agents” in spending their fees. A hasty "bug" will probably be fixed

A project announced by Vyacheslav Volodin on November 6 about special ruble accounts for “foreign agents” who receive payments “for using the fruits of their creative activity” appeared on the State Duma website with some delay.

The draft contains a number of amendments to the law of July 14, 2022 No. 255-F3 “On control over the activities of persons under foreign influence.” They will apply only to individuals, since legal entities cannot be subjects of the right to royalties. The broadest category will be journalists who receive fees (but not wages), as well as writers, designers, scientists and inventors - holders of patents and trademarks - regardless of whether they are located in Russia or abroad.

The amendments establish the procedure for opening special accounts “in an authorized bank” either at the request of the “agent” himself (no later than 15 days from the date of entry into the register), or, in the event of his refusal to submit an application to open an account. Opening an account through a representative is not excluded. It is indicated that, by court decision, debts (for example, taxes) can be collected from a special account.

The surprise is that a draft has been submitted to the first reading that does not in any way restrict the spending of funds from special ruble accounts - neither by the “agents” themselves, nor even by their representatives, who can act by proxy from those who have left the country. What, then, is the meaning of Volodin’s threats to those “who are destroying Russia by insulting its citizens, members of the Northern Military District”, who “should not enrich themselves at the expense of our country”?

One gets the impression that the project contained restrictions on the use by “agents” of funds in special accounts, but this design would require amendments not only to Federal Law-255, but also to the Civil Code (and if you follow the law, then to the Constitution - in terms of regulation its property rights). From this amendment, which disappeared, but will, presumably, be proposed for the second reading, what remains is the phrase in the explanatory note to the draft: “To manage funds from a special account, it is necessary to exclude a foreign agent from the register of foreign agents.”

That is, the idea is to completely block special accounts. The problem is how to reconcile this cannibalistic mechanism with higher-ranking constitutional laws.

But, perhaps, for current legislators this is no longer a problem: the “enemy” (dissident) must be destroyed by any means.