According to state media, Russian President Vladimir Putin has proposed a legislative amendment that would permit authorities to strip residents of their citizenship if the Russian military is shown in bad light or criticized.
The amendments to the bill, which were first approved by the State Duma in April, deem “public dissemination of deliberately false information about the Russian Armed Forces” to be a crime, and doing so will result in the cancellation of Russian passports and citizenship.
It primarily targets people who, for instance, as a result of Russian ‘annexation’ of new territory, obtained citizenship via passport rather than by birthright.
Putin has suggested several changes, including breaking Russian territorial integrity, openly supporting extremism, endangering the life of a government official, and mistreating the national anthem and flag.
The amendments to the bill, which were first approved had suggested that the citizenship would be revoked for “serious crimes against the state, terrorist activities, drug trafficking and forgery of documents.”
The revisions aim to penalize behavior deemed “unfavorable on the territorial integrity of Russia” while employed by foreign or international non-governmental organizations.
Russian Federal Security Service will establish cases of action
Additionally, according to RIA Novosti, Putin has suggested that the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) serve as the central authority for establishing “cases of actions threatening to the security of the state that could lead to deprivation of citizenship.”
No matter when the offense was committed, the decision to revoke citizenship can be taken, it was added. Russia has been vigilant in regard to how the local media covers the operations of its soldiers ever since the situation in Ukraine began.
By judging the media’s coverage of the conflict to be unfavorable, it has been taking action against it. A few weeks into the battle, the Russian parliament issued a bill imposing a maximum 15-year prison sentence for knowingly disseminating “fake” news about the armed forces.