The State Duma will hit fakes with confiscation

On Monday, a bill will be submitted to the State Duma providing for the confiscation of property used to spread fakes about the army and calls for activities against the security of the state, if these crimes were committed for personal gain. This was announced by the Chairman of the Lower House Vyacheslav Volodin. At the same time, those convicted under these articles may lose honorary titles and state awards.

As Vyacheslav Volodin explained in his Telegram channel, the purpose of the new bill is to punish “scoundrels, including cultural figures, who support the Nazis, pour dirt on our country, soldiers and officers participating in the SVO.” The document was sent to the government for review and signed by United Russia members Irina Yarovaya, Vasily Piskarev and Elena Yampolskaya. Last week, according to RIA Novosti, its co-authors were the leaders of all factions, although later the chairman of New People, Alexey Nechaev, denied his participation. Also, as Kommersant previously reported, the initiative of the deputies has already been supported by the government commission on legislative activities.

The draft amendments, which Kommersant has reviewed, introduce an additional qualifying feature for such offenses as dissemination of knowingly false information about the armed forces (Article 207.3 of the Criminal Code) and public calls for activities directed against the security of the state (Article 280.4). If these crimes are committed for hire or for mercenary reasons, it is proposed to provide for the possibility of confiscation of the property used in their commission. At the same time, deputies want to extend confiscation to money, valuables and other property intended to finance activities directed against the security of the state (more than 30 articles of the Criminal Code fall under this concept). The authors also propose to toughen the punishment for calls for such activities if they are committed for personal gain or motivated by political, national or religious hatred: in this case, they move from crimes of moderate gravity to the category of serious ones, and the maximum term of imprisonment increases from four to six years.

In addition, for these crimes and nine other offenses (including public calls for extremism and the introduction of anti-Russian sanctions, discrediting the Armed Forces and rehabilitation of Nazism), it is proposed to deprive the criminals of honorary titles. The explanatory note notes that these measures are aimed “at preventing and suppressing criminal activities carried out in order to undermine the foundations of the constitutional order, the country’s defense capability and state security.”

Lawyer Stanislav Seleznev recalls that this is not the first time that deputies have addressed the topic of confiscation: in June 2023, it was added to the articles of the Criminal Code on “IT” crimes, and in April – to the “anti-sabotage” articles. 281.1, 281.2 and 281.3 and in Art. 260.1 on illegal collection of mushrooms. Earlier, in July 2022, confiscation of property was included in the list of sanctions under new articles on confidential cooperation with foreign states and organizations (Article 275.1), as well as on crimes related to state secrets (Articles 283.1 and 283.2).

However, the expert notes, the article on fakes already contains a clause about “selfish motives” (clause “g” of Part 2 of Article 207.3), but there are only a few cases where the accused were charged with a selfish motive (for example, Colombian Enrique Saraya and politician Vladimir Kara-Murza, included in the register of foreign agents), mainly in such cases they are charged with political hatred. Moreover, fines as punishment can be much more noticeable (for example, under Article 207.3 – from 3 million to 5 million rubles), but they have not yet been imposed on anyone either: even journalists who were convicted in absentia are sentenced to “virtual” terms ( after which the seizure of the property is lifted), rather than real fines that could be collected from the property remaining in Russia. In addition, for confiscation it is also necessary to prove that the property was acquired with funds received as a reward for a crime, Mr. Seleznev notes. Therefore, for now, in his opinion, it looks like another “horror story.” The lawyer seems much more serious about the tightening of sanctions under Art. 280.4: if now for conscription, for example, not going to the military registration and enlistment office you can get a term of up to four years, then in the future it will increase to six – if the expert sees political hostility in this speech.

The introduction of the article of confiscation of property into the sanction allows, first of all, to seize the property of the accused for the entire period of investigation and trial, recalls Vadim Klyuvgant, partner of the Pen & Paper Bar Association. The use and disposal of such property becomes impossible, and under certain conditions, the property of other persons besides the accused may be seized. What of this property will then be confiscated when the verdict is passed, and what and under what conditions will be returned – a separate and unobvious question, and the answer to it depends on the court’s assessment of various circumstances, the expert emphasizes: how much money obtained by criminal means was invested in the acquisition of that property? or other property, what property was used to commit the crime, etc. In addition, discrediting the accused person as a “sold out hireling” (and not at all an ideological oppositionist), no longer worthy of his rewards, may also well be the goal under certain circumstances, he adds Mr. Klyuvgant.

Anastasia Kornya