MOSCOW (AP) 鈥 After a brief discussion, the upper house of Russia鈥檚 parliament on Wednesday unanimously endorsed a bill that would allow authorities to confiscate money, valuables and other assets from people convicted of spreading 鈥渄eliberately false information鈥 about the country鈥檚 military.
The bill, which was approved equally quickly by the lower house last week, is expected to receive Russian President Vladimir Putin鈥檚 signature and become law soon.
The lower house speaker, Vyacheslav Volodin, has said the measure would strengthen the punishment for the 鈥渢raitors who sling mud at our country and our troops鈥 and 鈥渟trip those scoundrels of honorary titles, confiscate their assets, money and other valuables.鈥
Russian officials have used the existing law against 鈥渄iscrediting鈥 the military that covers offenses such as 鈥渏ustifying terrorism鈥 and spreading 鈥渇ake news鈥 about the armed forces . Multiple activists, bloggers and ordinary Russians have received long prison terms.
The new confiscation law would apply to people who are convicted of publicly inciting 鈥渆xtremist activities鈥 and calling for actions that would hurt the security of the state or 鈥渄iscrediting鈥 the armed forces. Discrediting the Russian military became a criminal offense under a law adopted as part of a sweeping government crackdown on dissent after Moscow in February 2022.
The bill does not include real estate among the assets subject to seizure. Draconian Soviet-era legislation authorized the seizure of housing for a variety of criminal offenses.
