“Temporary” deprivation of citizenship

The State Duma adopted in the first reading another law depriving the property rights of government critics who have gone abroad

The draft law “On temporary restrictive measures against persons located outside the Russian Federation and evading punishment” (No. 1095029-8) was adopted by the State Duma in the first reading on the eve of the direct meeting with Vladimir Putin, and was introduced a day after his meeting with the Human Rights Council.

Commenting on the speech of HRC member Alexander Sokurov, Putin, in particular, said:

“I know your position on the law on foreign agents, but this was done in the USA in the 40s of the last century... There, violating this law threatens with imprisonment, but we don’t have that. In fact, we have one most important thing - show your sources of funding. Well, what’s so scary here?..”

Putin’s rhetoric on this issue has not changed since 2012, when “foreign agents” first appeared in legislation, and regardless of the fact that their discrimination at the level of not only practice, but also laws is constantly and increasingly expanding. And those who do not agree with the restrictions are brought to criminal liability in person and in absentia, which the president should have known about. But since a significant number of “agents” have left for countries where “law enforcement agencies” cannot reach them, the recent trend is to deprive them of their rights to property left behind in their homeland.

The chairman of the State Duma commission to investigate the facts of interference of foreign states in the internal affairs of the Russian Federation, Vasily Piskarev, in his telegram explained the need for the adoption of the law by the fact that unfriendly countries refuse to extradite to Russia “fugitive terrorists, corrupt officials, thieving bankers and other criminals,” and Western intelligence services use “this contingent” in “anti-Russian activities.” “Other criminals” are political emigrants, in relation to whom “unfriendly countries” ignore Interpol requests. The future law will cover all those convicted in absentia on all criminal and some administrative charges (in particular, for “discrediting the Armed Forces” and non-compliance with the legislation on “foreign agents”).

It is intended to make their life even more difficult in the first place. Those evading punishment will be prohibited from any transactions in the Russian Federation, including by proxy, and all their property, including bank accounts, will be frozen. This measure, of course, is “temporary”,

In order to lift the bans, the “slanderers” are invited to return to the Russian Federation, that is, to put their heads in the noose themselves.

The decision to apply “temporary measures” will be made out of court by the Prosecutor General’s Office, which will maintain a corresponding list that largely coincides with the notorious list of the Ministry of Justice.

The most sensitive measure is the refusal to provide important consular services: emigrants will not be able to receive not only new Russian passports to replace expired ones, but also basic powers of attorney, also issued through Russian consulates in foreign countries. Coupled with the refusal to provide state and municipal services in electronic form, this will create problems not so much for the emigrants themselves, who have already settled abroad in one way or another, but for their relatives. Without a power of attorney, relatives remaining in Russia will not only be able to dispose of the apartment in which the emigrant is registered, but also, for example, receive receipts sent to him by mail in order to pay the corresponding part of transport taxes and real estate taxes.

The bill contradicts Article 19 of the Constitution of the Russian Federation, according to which “the state guarantees equality of rights and freedoms of man and citizen, regardless of... place of residence... beliefs...”. The lawyers who remained sane compared the future law with a “temporary” (that is, until return and landing) deprivation of Russian citizenship.

In the theory of law, the issue of the operation of laws in time and space is discussed separately. And here, in relation to the modern world, an allowance must be made for the fact that the Russian-speaking semantic space does not recognize the state borders of the Russian Federation. The USSR, to which it is becoming more and more similar, did not encounter such a problem. Back then, only a few people left the country voluntarily, and their voices reached those who remained unintelligibly through radio interference. Today there are hundreds of such significant figures, and the Internet, as long as it functions at least in some form, allows everyone who is interested to hear them.

The policy of the Russian authorities aimed at discriminating against those who left can only be understood in the logic of censorship.

Restrictions on the Internet - outright censorship, political persecution and restrictions on rights, as in this case - are a continuation of censorship by other means. This means that you have something to hide: your own mistakes and weaknesses.