The State Duma doubts the need to confiscate the property of foreign agents

In order for the state to be able to seize property from citizens who are foreign agents, it is necessary to “rebuild the principles of criminal law,” since Russian legislation now only allows seizing property obtained illegally, Yury Sinelshchikov (KPRF), First Deputy Chairman of the State Duma Committee on State Building and Legislation, told Vedomosti .

“I can’t figure out how [предложение изымать имущество у иноагентов] implement. <…> A person receives help from abroad, we simply record this fact. Contrary to American law, our foreign agent is not obligated to act in any way for the benefit of a foreign country. <…> Now, if it were [об этом]then, perhaps, it was necessary to pose the question [об изъятии имущества]- he said.

Sinelshchikov believes that the status of a foreign agent existing in Russia in itself deters people from receiving money from abroad, and the authors of legislative initiatives directed against persons recognized as foreign agents “should moderate their appetite.”

January 17 became known on the appeal of the Fund for the Protection of National Historical Heritage to the Speaker of the State Duma Vyacheslav Volodin with the initiative to confiscate property and turn it into state revenue from citizens included in the register of foreign agents.

“There are media persons on the territory of the Russian Federation and beyond its borders, as well as citizens with the status of a foreign agent, who, due to their personal convictions or for a monetary reward coming from foreign special services, allow themselves to speak negatively and falsely about the actions of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation or openly call for internal unrest, criticizing the decisions taken by the leadership of our country. This violates the principles of national security and the principles of social justice,” the text says (quoted by TASS).

Such measures, among other things, should help “keep a common opinion in society regarding the strategy of political development,” said Alexander Karabanov, director of the fund, chairman of the Moscow Bar Association Karabanov and Partners. He proposed to develop a legal mechanism for the implementation of this initiative “in the near future”, but did not specify which one. Karabanov did not answer calls from Vedomosti.

The issue should be approached “extremely carefully” both from the point of view of creating a legal structure and from the point of view of expediency, believes Vladimir Samokish, Deputy Chairman of the State Duma Committee on Property, Land and Property Relations (United Russia). “When we say that if there is a marker of a foreign agent, then something needs to be confiscated, then by and large there is not even legal logic in this, since the regime for seizing something is always judicial in nature, there is always some kind of guilt that must be proven and for which a corresponding provision should be written in the criminal law. Only in this case can we talk about confiscation,” he told Vedomosti.

The initiative to confiscate property from all foreign agents at the moment seems to be unrealizable, says Oksana Tumanova, a lawyer and partner at Knyazev and Partners. “The activity of foreign agents in the Russian Federation is not prohibited and is not illegal. The Criminal Code of the Russian Federation contains an article on liability for evading the performance of duties stipulated by the legislation of the Russian Federation on foreign agents. That is, in itself, obtaining the status of a foreign agent is not criminalized, but only implies the incurring of additional duties, ”she told Vedomosti.

The law on foreign agents provides for the possibility of excluding persons from the list of foreign agents, the lawyer added. In this case, it is not clear whether a mechanism for the return of confiscated property from such persons will be prescribed, Tumanova said.

“It’s unconstitutional. Empty air shaking and PR action, ”- commented Earlier on January 17, Andrey Klishas, ​​the head of the Federation Council Committee on Constitutional Legislation and State Construction, presented Karabanov’s idea in his Telegram channel.

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

In turn, the first deputy chairman of the State Duma Committee on Culture, Elena Drapeko, proposed banning foreign actors from acting in new films funded by the state. “I think that these artists should not be given the right to act in new films at the expense of the budget, but the old films should be kept for ourselves, why give up our property,” she believes.