Russian President, Vladimir Putin, has signed off on a law to confiscate the property of opponents of the war and enemies of the state.
A decree with Putin’s approval was published in the Russian legal database on Wednesday.
The law provided for confiscating property allegedly acquired through the dissemination of alleged false information about the Russia military or by calls to endanger Russia’s national security.
Kremlin spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, tried to pre-empt criticism of the new law, saying that “we believe that expressing any concerns a priori is unfounded.”
Peskov denied that the new law amounted to a return of a notorious Soviet law on confiscating the property of enemies of the people.
Particularly under Soviet dictator, Josef Stalin, hundreds of thousands of people were declared enemies of the people, expropriated and either sent to camps or executed.
Since Putin ordered the full-scale Russian invasion of neighbouring Ukraine in February 2022, Russia had repeatedly tightened its laws to crack down on any perceived criticism of the war.
The alleged dissemination of false reports about the Russian army, for example, is now punishable by long prison sentences.
