The Russian government has submitted to the State Duma for consideration a bill allowing the introduction of visa and financial sanctions against any foreign citizens and stateless persons.

Such changes are proposed to be made to the  “law of Dima Yakovlev” , which now allows the imposition of sanctions only against US citizens. The authors of the bill emphasized in an explanatory note that “violation of the rights of Russian citizens is possible by citizens not only of the United States.”GROUNDS FOR SANCTIONS

The sanctions include a ban on entry into the Russian Federation, the seizure of assets and a ban on any transactions with the property and investments of people against whom restrictions have been imposed.

The authors of the bill noted that the proposed changes do not prohibit foreign citizens from adopting Russian orphans. This ban “will continue to apply only to US citizens, which is due to the aggressive sanctions policy of the specified foreign state,” said in the explanatory note.

Amendments to the “law of Dima Yakovlev”, adopted in 2020, allowed the Russian authorities to recognize almost any Russian citizen as “foreign agents”.

(C)MEDUZA 2021