If living in forced exile outside of your home country isn’t hard enough, imagine not being able to withdraw money from your bank accounts or renew your passport.
With the stroke of a pen, President Vladimir Putin approved a law imposing sweeping restrictions on thousands of exiled regime critics last week, cutting them off from basic consular services and impeding their ability to manage personal affairs back home.
The list of prohibited activities includes managing one’s finances, properties and legal matters. Bank accounts will be frozen, embassies will refuse most appointments, and people to whom the law applies won’t even be able to use the government’s digital services portal or do something as simple as register a marriage.
Human rights organizations have decried the new measures as an attempt to further hamstring Russian political exiles, many of whom fled Russia due to increased wartime repression. Their shorthand for the bill, the “civic death law,” underscores its severity.
In the days since its adoption, Russians told The Moscow Times that they are concerned about how the law could impact them but have yet to see the full picture of how it will be implemented.
