On Wednesday, January 24, the Russian State Duma passed a bill enabling the confiscation of the property and valuables of those who are broadly critical or opposed to the war in Ukraine. While the law can target any Russian citizen, it is above all a reminder to the hundreds of thousands of Russians who have chosen exile. Even abroad, they are not safe from the Kremlin's repressive machine.

The bill specifically mentions 30 misdemeanors or crimes, primarily political in nature or explicitly linked to the "special operation" in Ukraine. These include discrediting or spreading false information about the army's actions, calls for separatism, calls for extremism, calls for actions threatening state security, participation in an undesirable or extremist organization, rehabilitation of Nazism, desertion, sabotage, smuggling and treason.

For confiscation, these crimes must have been motivated by "political, social or ethnic hatred" or "greed." This particularly targets journalists forced into exile, who receive a salary abroad – often sporadically.

The decision of how much property and assets to seize will be made by the justice system, tasked with determining which are intended to "finance criminal activities" – an intentionally vague assessment. Confiscation may involve the family or relatives of those involved.

Introducing the project, Duma Chairman Vyacheslav Volodin stressed the need to punish "the scum" who "support the Nazis, sully our country and our soldiers." Volodin makes no secret of his aversion in particular to artists who live abroad and continue to receive income in Russia. In addition to possible confiscation of their property, they could be stripped of state awards.

These measures represent a new threat for Russians living abroad, who have been described as "traitors" in Russia and who are already seeing an increasing number of obstacles in their interactions with the government. Several of them have been arrested and extradited from countries bordering Russia. At the beginning of January, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs also raised the possibility of not organizing voting for the March presidential elections in 49 "hostile" countries.