On 22 January 2024, members of the Russian parliament submitted a law which would allow for the confiscation of the property of those sentenced for disseminating “fake news” about the Russian army. In the future, the measure could be applied, among others, to journalists who received sentences for critical publications on the war in Ukraine. The measure would also apply to those sentenced under an article of Russia’s Criminal Code banning calls upon action “targeting the security of the state”.
According to independent Russian media outlet MediaZona, the law would allow authorities to confiscate all property in Russia which investigators would consider to have been received as payment for the incriminated acts or purchased with money received for committing them.
The law would theoretically not apply to existing cases of journalists who received prison sentences for “fake news” on the war in Ukraine, as it would only concern those found guilty of violating the law “out of material interest”: as of January 2024, Russian courts have issued several “fake news” verdicts with such a mention, but none of them against a journalist. Such sentences could, however, be pronounced in the future.