On January 31, 2024, the Russian State Duma unanimously adopted, in the second and third readings, a bill on the confiscation of property of the persons sentenced under a number of articles, including “fakes about the Russian army.”
According to the RS, the law amends Article 104.1 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (confiscation of property). In particular, Article 104.1-1 a) expands the list of crimes for which a guilty verdict provides for confiscation of property obtained as a result of committing these crimes. These are crimes under RF CC Article 207.3 (“public dissemination of clearly false information about the use of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation, the execution of the powers by state bodies of the Russian Federation, the support provided by voluntary formations, organizations or individuals to the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation or the National Guard of the Russian Federation to perform their assigned tasks”) and RF CC Article 280.4 (“public appeals to carry out activities directed against the national security”).
In addition, Article 104.1 is supplemented with a note that defines the activity directed against the security of the Russian Federation as committing at least one of the crimes as established by the articles on mercenarism, genocide, desertion, failure to comply with an order, receiving or giving a bribe, and banditry. In total, this list includes more than 30 articles of the Code. For instance, Part 2 of RF CC Article 280.4 is supplemented by clauses on “committing a crime for mercenary motives or recruitment and for reasons of political, ideological, racial, national or religious hatred or enmity or for reasons of hatred or enmity against any social group”. RF CC Article 48 (“deprivation of special, military or honorary rank, class rank and state awards”) is supplemented with a clause of possible deprival of ranks and awards for a number of crimes according to the court decision.
These are articles 207.3 (“public dissemination of clearly false information about the use of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation”), 280 (“public appeals to extremist activities”), 280.1 (“public appeals to actions aimed at violating the territorial integrity of the Russian Federation”), 280.3 (“public actions aimed at discrediting the use of the Russian Armed Forces”). This list also includes articles 280.4 (“public appeals to actions aimed against the national security”), 284.2 (“appeals to introducing restrictive measures against the Russian Federation, citizens of the Russian Federation or Russian legal entities”), 284.3 (“support to enforce decisions of international organizations that the Russian Federation is not a party to or of foreign state bodies”) and 354.1 (“rehabilitation of Nazism”).
The bill is to be approved by the Federation Council and signed by the President.
Sergey Aksionov, Head of Crimea “occupation administration”, said that he was supporting the law.
“All these scoundrels should be beaten in their most painful place – the wallet. And beaten as painfully as possible. It is necessary to block any opportunities to make money in Russia, dumping on Russia at the same time. Let the enemies feed on the enemy’s territory. But they are unlikely to be interesting to anyone there. They are just consumables,” Aksionov wrote.
In 2023 freedom of speech was being curtailed, and journalists were being persecuted in Crimea. The Russian authorities kept on persecuting under an administrative article “on public actions aimed at discrediting the Russian Army” (RF CoAO Article 20.3.3, in force since 4 March 2022).
For 2023, the CHRG documented at least 339 judgements of occupation “courts” on administrative punishment under Art. 20.3.3 of RF CoAO.
