State Duma allows seizure of property from Russians who left the country for offenses "against the interests of the Russian Federation"

The State Duma has allowed the seizure of property from Russians who left the country for offenses "against the interests of the Russian Federation"

The bill was submitted to the lower house of parliament in October 2024. The State Duma approved it in its first reading in May 2025, and a year later passed it at once in the second and third readings.

Initially, it was proposed that Russians who had left the country could be punished for any administrative offense committed outside the Russian Federation if it was directed "against the interests of the country." But by the second reading, the document spelled out a list of offenses for which Russians abroad could be prosecuted (as well as for failure to pay an administrative fine under these articles, if it had already been imposed). The list includes, in particular:

✹ violating the rules governing the activities of a "foreign agent";

✹ abusing freedom of the mass media;

✹ calls for terrorist or extremist activity;

✹ publicly equating the actions and decisions of the USSR leadership with those of Nazi Germany.

The bill specifies seizure of property as an interim enforcement measure.

"Thus, whereas previously the property of a person who received a fine in absentia under a protocol could be seized after enforcement proceedings were initiated by court bailiffs, under the new bill security forces will be able to seize assets when the protocol is drawn up, as an interim measure," Mediazona explains.

@meduzalive