The president of the lower house of the Russian Parliament proposed Monday to strip of their nationality the “traitors” opposed to the offensive in Ukraine, citing as an example a journalist who had brandished a sign against the intervention.
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“The vast majority of our citizens support the special military operation in Ukraine, they understand its necessity for the security of our country and our nation. But there are also those who behave cowardly, treacherously,” Duma chief Vyacheslav Volodin said.
“Alas, for such citizens of the Russian Federation there is no procedure for deprivation of citizenship and prohibition from entering our country. But maybe it would be good,” he continued on his Telegram channel.
“What do you think?” He then asked his subscribers.
To illustrate his point, Mr. Volodin cited the case of journalist Marina Ovsiannikova who became famous in mid-March by brandishing a sign saying “No to war” live on television.
Ms. Ovsiannikova, who had left her job at the Russian public channel Pervy Kanal, has become a correspondent in Ukraine and Russia for the major German daily die Welt, the media announced on Monday.
“Now she is going to work for a NATO country, justify arms deliveries to Ukrainian neo-Nazis, sending foreign mercenaries to fight our soldiers and defend sanctions against Russia,” denounced Mr. Volodin.
It is unlikely that a radical measure such as the withdrawal of nationality will take shape without the approval of President Vladimir Putin.
But the declarations of Mr. Volodin illustrate in any case the increasingly hostile climate which reigns in Russia against any voice which is set up against the military offensive which Moscow leads in Ukraine since February 24.
The Kremlin has stepped up a crackdown in recent weeks, arresting thousands of protesters, blocking independent media and social media, and dropping heavy-handed words like “purification” of society or “traitors.”
Opponents of the military intervention are constantly demonized and people who have criticized the operation have seen the door of their accommodation daubed with threatening messages.