Russian President Vladimir Putin’s expatriate critics will “die beyond the borders of our country” for their putative crimes, according to a lawmaker implicated in the infamous Alexander Litvinenko assassination.
“Anyone who tries to harm their homeland, country and citizens will lose everything and die beyond the borders of our country, like a dog,” Russian lawmaker Andrey Lugovoy said this week, per a Politico translation.
Lugovoy is a former KGB officer wanted in the United Kingdom for the murder of Litvinenko, another former Russian spy whose slow death from poisoning by polonium-210 made international headlines in 2006. He aired the threat amid a crackdown on Russian critics of the war in Ukraine.
“Anyone who tries to destroy Russia and betray her should receive the punishment they deserve, and compensate for the damage to the country with their property,” Russian parliamentary speaker Vyacheslav Volodin said last week.
Putin has criminalized dissent against the war in the two years since the full-scale invasion, with Moscow adopting legislation to ban statements “discrediting” the Russian military or spreading whatever the government deems fake news about the conflict. Those restrictions remain a priority heading into the March presidential election, which is widely perceived as a formality with a pre-determined and pro-Putin outcome.
“If you call to violate the national security of the country, then, in addition to the fact that you have to sit in prison a little, you must lose your apartment, home, money, any other property, which you have the right to use,” Lugovoy said, per an unofficial translation.
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His comments come on the heels of an announcement that a prominent Russian journalist whom he has described as a “traitor” has fled the country.
“A friendly lawyer said if they [Russian authorities] wanted to open a criminal case against me, they’d find something to prosecute me for,” journalist Asya Kazantseva announced on Monday.