Russian President Vladimir Putin has signed bills into law that dramatically increase punishments for citizens opposed to his war in Ukraine and authoritarian rule, his latest move to crush any trace of dissent in the country.
Putin on April 28 signed legislation raising the maximum sentence for state treason to life in prison, up from a limit of 20 years, and for sabotage to 20 years from 15. Those convicted of carrying out actions to "destabilize" the country could face up to 20 years, while those found guilty of facilitating terrorism will now serve a minimum of seven years rather than five.
Meanwhile, Putin also approved a bill depriving Russians of their citizenship for "discrediting" or spreading "fake" information about the armed forces as well as for actions considered a national security threat.
The latter bill only concerns those who applied for and received citizenship, such as Ukrainians and Central Asians, and not those who received citizenship upon birth.
At the same time, Putin eased the process for people to receive citizenship, including those who sign contracts to serve at least a year in the armed forces.
Putin's signing of the bills comes less than two weeks after one of his fiercest critics, Vladimir Kara-Murza, was sentenced to 25 years in prison for treason and other charges in what experts say was a signal to others who might contemplate voicing dissent.
Russia filed treason charges against Kara-Murza for an address he made to U.S. officials in March 2022 denouncing the war in Ukraine and calling Putin a war criminal.
The number of individuals in Russia charged with treason has dramatically increased this year.
Targeting Ukrainians
On April 27, Putin signed a decree that allows the deportation of residents of illegally annexed Ukrainian territories who refuse Russian citizenship, prompting accusations of ethnic cleansing and war crimes by Moscow.
The decree, published on April 27 on Russia's official Internet portal for legal information, says that Ukrainians living in territories annexed by Russia must either become Russian citizens or officially refuse to do so.
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According to the decree, those citizens who "declared their desire to retain their existing citizenship or remain stateless" and did not take the oath of a Russian citizen will be considered foreigners" from July 1, 2024.
Residents of the annexed territories who are given foreigner or stateless status and threaten Russia's "national security" may be subject to deportation from Russia.
Since the Kremlin launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, it has been accused of deporting Ukrainians from their homeland to parts of the country it controls, or to Russia itself.
Evidence of the deportations, especially of children, prompted the International Criminal Court on March 17 issued arrest warrants on war crimes charges for Russian President Vladimir Putin and Maria Lvova-Belova, Moscow's commissioner for children's rights.
Hanna Malyar, Ukraine's deputy defense minister, said the move showed Russia is trying to "influence a change in the ethnic composition of the temporarily occupied territory within Ukraine."
"In this way, the enemy seeks to destroy Ukrainian statehood and the national self-identity of society in the temporarily occupied Ukrainian territories," she said on her Telegram channel.
Meanwhile. the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe on April 27 recognized the deportation and forcible transfers of Ukrainian children to Russian territory as genocide. It also called upon the International Criminal Court to consider the possibility of criminal responsibility for the crime.
Under a second decree, signed by Putin on April 28, people who lived in the occupied Ukrainian territories on the day when they were annexed and citizens who previously lived in those territories and moved to Russia but declared their desire to retain their Ukrainian citizenship will also be considered foreigners.
The new decree apparently targets critics of Russia's full-scale aggression against Ukraine, as well as labor migrants in Russia from former Soviet republics in Central Asia and the South Caucasus who either recently obtained Russian citizenship or are expecting to receive it soon.
Many naturalized citizens from former Soviet republics have complained that Russian military conscription officials were forcing them to mobilize for the war in Ukraine. A considerable number of them have either openly refused to serve or have fled Russia for their native countries.
"Those who pose a threat to national security, advocate forcible change in the foundations of the constitutional order, finance terrorist and extremist activities, or participate in unauthorized actions" can be deported, the decree says.
Putin on September 30 signed documents formalizing Russia's attempt to annex Ukraine's Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson, and Zaporizhzhya regions, parts of which are occupied by Russian forces.
Earlier, Moscow held sham wartime referendums in the four regions that were broadly rejected by the international community.
The four regions together with Crimea, which Moscow illegally annexed in 2014, make up around 20 percent of Ukraine, including some of its most industrialized territory.