Deputies supported the seizure of property used to discredit the army and against state security

The State Duma on Wednesday approved in the first reading a bill on the confiscation of property used to spread fakes about the army or calls for activities against the security of the state, or received for committing such crimes. The parliamentarians who spoke almost unanimously supported the bill, emphasizing that it is important, among other things, for the fight against “modern traitors and scoundrels” who have taken refuge abroad and do not feel the consequences of the cases brought against them. At the same time, they did not seem to notice the remark of the co-rapporteur on the project that the imposed confiscation was “not a form of punishment”, and talked about it precisely as a punishment deserved by the enemies of Russia.

Amendments developed by a group of United Russia members led by Vice Speaker Irina Yarovaya (see “Kommersant” dated January 22) are introduced into two articles of the Criminal Code – Art. 207.3 (dissemination of knowingly false information about the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation) and Art. 280.4 (public calls for activities directed against the security of the state) – an additional qualifying feature: committing a crime for hire or for mercenary reasons. If it exists, it is proposed to confiscate from the convicted person the money and property used to commit the crime or received as a result of it. The authors want to extend this measure to property intended to finance activities directed against the security of the state (more than 30 articles of the Criminal Code fall under this concept). In addition, for these and other acts (on nine more charges, including discrediting the army, calls for extremism and the introduction of sanctions) it is proposed to deprive of honorary titles and state awards. The bill was signed by 395 deputies.

At the Duma meeting on January 24, innovations were discussed mainly in the context of the Russian-Ukrainian conflict.

According to Irina Yarovaya, who presented the amendments, these measures, among other things, are designed to stop those “who are ready to collude with the Nazis and criminals.”

“We hear society’s request that proportionality and inevitability of punishment be ensured,” she said, emphasizing that actions against the Russian Armed Forces are actions “against every citizen, every woman and every child.” According to Ms. Yarovaya, the public demand also corresponds to the deprivation of honorary titles awarded to those who encroached on state security and the reputation of the Russian army: “Our task was to find the legal formula that would allow justice to prevail and enable the judicial system to make such decisions.”

The first deputy chairman of the committee on state construction and legislation, Irina Pankina (ER), as a co-rapporteur on the project, considered it necessary to emphasize that the introduced confiscation is not a type of punishment “that left the criminal code in 2003”: “It applies primarily to the means of committing a crime, money and valuables obtained as a result of the commission of a crime, as well as intended to finance this criminal activity.”

The bill did not cause any controversy.

The only person who spoke sharply was Nikolai Arefiev (KPRF), who said that he receives a lot of appeals from lawyers of those accused of “terrorist charges” who, out of ignorance, transferred money to terrorists. “Do you work in a law office and listen to arguments that are presented on a financial basis in favor of defending an accused or defendant, or are you guided by the spirit of the law and the protection of the interests of citizens?” — Mrs. Yarovaya asked unkindly, adding that “the task of a lawyer is to defend criminals for money,” and deputies should “protect Russian citizens.”

All other speakers warmly approved of the amendments. Sultan Khamzaev (United Russia) called for sharpening the mechanisms for pre-trial blocking of assets, “otherwise one will tell the other, and everyone will be taken out.” Oleg Nilov (SRZP) recalled that his party stands for the return of “the institution of confiscation in the Criminal Code to almost the same extent as it was in ancient times,” and proposed extending it also to “professional swindlers” who are causing “nightmares” to Russians at the instigation enemy intelligence services and use them “to commit sabotage crimes.”

“From this rostrum, our chairman has repeatedly drawn attention to the fact that those who are there (abroad.— “Kommersant”) and are engaged in undermining the sovereignty of Russia, they must bear responsibility,” Andrei Lugovoy (LDPR) supported the general sentiment. He is confident that those involved in the relevant proceedings who have left “do not feel close” to the criminal cases against them and will probably now try to re-register the property remaining in Russia. “The question has been correctly raised that their relatives will also need to be checked,” the deputy reasoned. “We also want to include a provision in the law on foreign agents so that in order to re-register any property, a foreign agent will need to come to Russia in person, without any principals.” Today’s bill, the liberal democrat emphasized, should have been adopted back in March 2022, and by delaying the Duma “showed kindness”): “Let them rejoice, but retribution awaits each of them.”

“They could act according to their conscience, stay with their homeland in difficult times, or flee cowardly, and not just flee, but openly side with the Nazis, finance those who kill our citizens,” Vasily Piskarev (ER) developed the thesis. “They deserve our contempt, but not only: they must be brought to trial so that they receive punishment; the court can deprive them of state awards and confiscate their property.” The project, the deputy emphasized, concerns “justice”, because we are talking about the most serious socially dangerous acts.

“The purpose of the bill is to protect soldiers and officers from being stabbed in the back, to ensure the security of the country,” speaker Vyacheslav Volodin summed up the discussion. And we will have to respond “not just with censure, as now,” he warned: “We don’t have levers, we don’t have effective standards of punishment – we’ll wag our fingers, we’ll speak out, like here, and then what? And then confiscation and criminal prosecution. This will affect everyone who attacks the country, our soldiers.” There are no personal or political motives in the initiative, because similar norms exist in all countries that “want to stay on the map,” and besides, these measures are supported by the overwhelming majority of Russians, the speaker concluded: “Voting is by roll-call, and this question, believe me, will be very is important, including when assessing deputies and re-election.”

The only faction that remained silent at the meeting was the “New People” (they had previously refused to sign the document in full).

Party leader Alexei Nechaev explained this position to Kommersant by saying that “the country needs more trust, not threats,” and “vague concepts in the bill and their interpretations” can provoke “abuses, seizure of property and settling scores.” “I said something wrong, it was recognized as a call against security – and I lost all my property,” Mr. Nechaev gave an example. “All this will certainly be used against us by our enemies.”

As a result, the bill was adopted with 395 votes in favor and three against (Sergei Shargunov from the Communist Party of the Russian Federation, Sardana Avksentyeva and Ksenia Goryacheva from New People). The document should be considered in the second reading next week.

Grigory Leiba