The speaker of the Russian parliament, Vyacheslav Volodin, threatened today to confiscate the assets of Russians who have left the country and who “allow themselves to publicly denigrate Russia.”
“The goal of these people is (…) to try to preserve their well-being abroad,” where they “live comfortably” thanks to Russia and the income they receive from the country, the speaker of the Russian Parliament (Duma) wrote on the platform. Telegram .
Volodin further accused “the defunct scoundrels” of “denigrating Russia, its inhabitants and its soldiers, and openly supporting bandits, Nazis and murderers.”
The military offensive launched on February 24 by Russia in Ukraine was justified by Russian President Vladimir Putin with the need to “denazify” and demilitarize Ukraine for Russia’s security.
Volodin defended that the statements against the country and its military can be considered as “calls for extremism, rehabilitation of Nazism or discrediting the Armed Forces”, crimes contemplated in the Russian Penal Code.
“As practice shows, existing response measures [para esses crimes] are insufficient,” lamented the Russian leader.
“It would be convenient to include in the respective articles of the penal code the seizure of the assets that the scoundrels have in Russia, which are sufficient to repair the damage caused,” Volodin stressed.
According to estimates, hundreds of thousands of Russians will have left the country, especially in the fall, after the Kremlin announced the mobilization of hundreds of thousands of men of fighting age.
In December, Digital Development Minister Maksut Shadayev admitted that around 100,000 Russian IT professionals, or 10% of the total, will leave the country by 2022.
These departures have raised concerns about a brain drain that could create a shortage of workers in the high-tech sector, which requires highly-skilled staff.
The Russian invasion caused the flight of more than 14 million people -6.5 million internally displaced persons and more than 7.9 million to European countries-, according to the latest data from the UN, which classifies this refugee crisis as the worst in Europe since World War II (1939-1945).
Right now, 17.7 million Ukrainians need humanitarian aid and 9.3 million need food aid and shelter.
The invasion was condemned by the broader international community, which has responded by sending weapons to Ukraine and imposing political and economic sanctions on Russia.
The UN presented as confirmed since the beginning of the war 6,919 dead civilians and 11,075 wounded, stressing that these figures are far below the real ones.
Source: TSF
