Putin promised “responsibility under the law” for traitors

President Vladimir Putin said in a message to the Federal Assembly that Russia’s enemies are betting on “national traitors” and on those who want to make money on the sale of the Motherland. Anyone who embarked on the path of “direct betrayal” commits a crime and “will be held accountable under the law,” the President stressed. But at the same time, there are those “who reneged on their homeland”: “Let it remain on their conscience.” According to Putin, people will give them a moral assessment, and will not be punished like the “Kiev regime”. But “our multinational people, the vast majority of citizens took a principled position regarding the special military operation,” as well as the defense of Donbass, the president said, and showed real patriotism.

Andrei Klishas, ​​head of the Committee on State Building and Constitutional Legislation of the Federation Council, began a discussion about punishment for the departed Russians. In an interview with Vedomosti on December 5, he said that the authorities could develop measures that would “make being abroad less comfortable” for Russians who left the country since the start of partial mobilization. “Many of them fled, but continue to work in Russian companies remotely,” he explained. – Can we change the law in this regard and limit the schemes that allow people to work there [за рубежом], and receive money from here, and we cannot understand whether they pay all taxes? Can”.

On December 25, 2022, State Duma Speaker Vyacheslav Volodin proposed introducing an increased tax rate for those who left. In his opinion, it is wrong to give benefits and preferences to those who left the country so that they return back. So he commented on the words of the head of the Ministry of Digital Development Maksut Shadayev, who proposed creating conditions for IT specialists so that they would like to return to Russia. It was about developing a program of “guarantees” for workers so that they understand that “they have nothing to fear” in Russia. Later, on February 7, Interfax, citing sources in the department, reported that the Ministry of Finance would not change the taxation rules for citizens who left the country and continue to work for Russian companies from abroad.

There were also more specific proposals to punish those who left. On December 28, 2022, Senator Sergei Tsekov proposed to confiscate property from Russians who have gone abroad and speak negatively about the country. He stated that the confiscated funds should be sent to the participants of the special operation. On the same day, Dmitry Medvedev, Deputy Chairman of the Security Council of the Russian Federation, called for such people not to be allowed into Russia “until the end of their days,” and also to cut them off from sources of income in the Russian Federation. In early January, he stressed that traitors must be dealt with “according to the law.” If the law does not work, then we should recall the “special rules of wartime.”

On January 13, Volodin also proposed to confiscate the property of those who offend Russia from abroad. Volodin explained that citizens who criticize the Russian government and live abroad rent out real estate and “continue to receive royalties” at the expense of the Russians. In his opinion, they “feel their impunity”, because they think that “justice cannot reach them.” He recalled that statements that offend the inhabitants of the Russian Federation and the military can be regarded as calls for extremism, discrediting the Russian army, etc. In his opinion, amendments should be made to the relevant articles of the Criminal Code, which would allow confiscating property from such citizens.

Klishas called this approach “possible”. “It remains only to understand how legally you can use someone else’s property to solve social problems. Without serious amendments to the Criminal Code – in any way. Leaving the Country is not a crime,” he wrote on his Telegram channel. Pavel Krasheninnikov, the head of the Duma Committee on State Construction, opposed the idea. “This is being discussed – confiscation as a form of punishment. Of course we are against it. Legally, we cannot support this, if it is some kind of global story, then global amendments are needed, we will consider them, ”he said.