It will be difficult to confiscate property from Russians who left the country

The adoption of amendments to the Criminal Code (CC) of the Russian Federation for the confiscation of property for insulting the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation, if they appear, is possible within one to two months, Deputy Chairman of the State Duma Committee on Property, Land and Property Relations Vladimir Samokish told Vedomosti (United Russia”).

“The initiative itself is realizable when prescribing or determining the compositions [преступления] in the UK. Naturally, it should be discussed at those committees dealing with criminal law and at those dealing with property issues. If desired, the amendments can be passed in all readings in a month or two,” he said.

State Duma Speaker Vyacheslav Volodin (United Russia) January 13 offered confiscate property from citizens who have left Russia and speak negatively about the country, its inhabitants and the military. He believes that the existing sanctions for such actions are not enough. The Criminal Code of the Russian Federation should be supplemented with an article on the confiscation of property for extremism, the rehabilitation of Nazism and the discrediting of the Russian army, Volodin noted.

Confiscation of property for insulting the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation is theoretically possible, declared later, Andrey Klishas (United Russia), Chairman of the Federation Council Committee on Constitutional Legislation and State Building, but for this “formulations of the elements of a criminal offense” are necessary.

Volodin’s proposal on the traditions of Russian law can only be implemented “through the Criminal Code,” agrees Yuri Sinelshchikov, deputy chairman of the State Duma Committee on State Building and Legislation (KPRF). “Our criminal concept says that confiscation should be used in crimes of a property nature, in crimes of a mercenary nature – a bribe, robbery, banditry, abuse of office. According to the law, it is possible to confiscate the property, according to which it is proved that it was acquired by criminal means. If a person commits a mercenary crime, but there is no evidence that it was acquired by criminal means, this does not mean that confiscation will be applied,” he said.

Sinelshchikov noted that if the corresponding amendment is submitted to the lower house of parliament, the State Construction Committee will be ready to consider it.

“We are talking about a non-existent project, a non-existent text that no one has seen, no one has analyzed. Our decisions are made collectively, and so far no one has discussed the project with me. There is no text, no comment,” Dmitry Vyatkin, a member of the Duma Committee on State Building and Legislation, first deputy head of the United Russia faction, told Vedomosti.

The topic of sanctions for those who earn money in Russia but live abroad and “do ideological work there on the other side of the front” has been discussed for several days, Samokish emphasizes. According to him, the issue needs to be discussed both from a technical point of view and from the point of view of expediency. “The main question here is what do we want to achieve? If we are talking about the fact that certain subjects comment negatively or produce fakes, then we can simply say that this is a fake, we have another fake thrower. Or we can use a model that is more similar to the one used by our “partners”, which is associated with financial sanctions for this or that behavior,” the deputy said.

Based on the words of Klishas, ​​confiscation of property for discrediting the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation will be possible only in relation to persons found guilty of committing a crime under the relevant article 280.3 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation, Oksana Tumanova, lawyer, partner of the Knyazev and Partners ICA, believes. At the same time, the establishment of such a measure exclusively in relation to citizens of the Russian Federation who left the territory of Russia seems impossible due to the violation of the fundamental principle of equality in criminal law, she told Vedomosti.

Technically, the introduction of such a measure is possible by amending Chapter 15.1 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation, which establishes provisions on the confiscation of property as a result of a crime, the lawyer notes. The basis for this is either the illegal nature of obtaining such property, or the direct use of property for the purpose of committing a crime. “In this regard, the use of this institution in order to seize property from persons found guilty of discrediting the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation seems to be fundamentally wrong. Also, at the moment, it is unclear the extent to which the confiscation of property can be carried out, due to the absence of any objective framework,” Tumanova said.

According to the Criminal Code, the amount of confiscation of property is determined on the basis of an assessment of the damage caused by the offender, or on how much he received from criminal activity, Mikhail Ganuschak, a leading lawyer at the Knyazev and Partners ICA, emphasizes. It is also possible to confiscate property that is a tool for committing a crime; there are no other mechanisms in the Criminal Code.

“From the point of view of law, it is impossible to divide Russians into those who are in the country and those outside the territory of the Russian Federation. The rules of criminal law should be the same for all. It is impossible to establish measures of a criminal law nature for a crime in a differentiated way, when one action for those who left entails the confiscation of property, but not for those who remain in the country. This is contrary to the general legal principle of equality and violates the provisions of the Constitution of the Russian Federation,” Ganuschak said.

Within the framework of the institution of confiscation of property, this initiative is impossible, agrees Artem Sargsyan, a lawyer at the Zabeyda and Partners Law Office. According to him, the seizure of property as a measure of a criminal law nature is based on the fact that confiscation should take place on property that has a certain connection with the crime committed.

There is no responsibility without guilt, and guilt can only be established by a judgment of conviction that has entered into legal force, he says. In the form in which the initiative is being voiced now, it can be assumed that we are talking about initiated criminal cases against persons who, in the opinion of law enforcement agencies, are engaged in discrediting the RF Armed Forces or something within the framework of similar new articles, the lawyer believes.

“There are no rules that can be applied to all those who have left. So they left – and therefore they are subject to the rules of confiscation under the Criminal Code, even with potentially possible changes. This will not apply to persons who are relocators and simply left the territory of the Russian Federation. In any case, the establishment of guilt in the commission of a specific crime is required,” Sargsyan said.

Until May 1, it is necessary to develop proposals on criminal liability for discrimination against Russians living abroad, Vladimir Putin ordered. Russians who left the country, but did not speak hostilely about it, are citizens of the Russian Federation, for whom the country’s authorities must fight, declared January 13, presidential press secretary Dmitry Peskov. He urged “not to open any Pandora’s boxes” and noted that this is a complex issue from a legal point of view.

Chairman of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation, head of the party faction in the State Duma Gennady Zyuganov thinksthat in relation to citizens who oppose the Russian Federation, it is impossible to follow the path of constant tightening of punishment. It is necessary to “mobilize resources as much as possible and work closely in society, engaging in patriotic education,” he said.

For the first time, a member of the Federation Council Sergei Tsekov made such an initiative at the end of December 2022. He called for the confiscation of property from citizens who criticize Russia from abroad and send funds to the participants in the special operation. Klishas criticized this initiative. “It is only possible to confiscate from citizens the instrument of crime or the income received from criminal activity. This is Russian law. The confiscation of the property of citizens who have left the country is out of the question. Contradicts the Constitution and the law,” he said.