The chairman of Russia’s parliament says those who fled the country to side with Ukraine should be charged with treason and sent to work in mines, in parts of Russia where there is no summer if they return home.
Key points:
- Vyacheslav Volodin suggested returning Russians who he regarded as traitors should be sent to far eastern region of Magadan known for its Stalin-era Gulag camps
- The Kremlin said it was not “on the same path” as Russians who had fled and adopted anti-Russian positions
- The Kremlin said other Russians are welcomed to return to the country
Russia’s war in Ukraine, something it calls a “special military operation”, and a subsequent mobilisation campaign, prompted several hundred thousand Russians to leave their homeland, though it is unclear exactly how many.
Moscow has tried to encourage some specialists, such as IT workers, to return and says some Russians have come back.
But Vyacheslav Volodin, the speaker of the Duma, the lower house of parliament, made it clear on Wednesday that the authorities were less keen to see Russians whom he and others regard as traitors return.
“If they start returning now but have made statements against the country and financed the armed forces of Ukraine then of course we must choose a place to send them immediately,” Mr Volodin told parliament.
“Such actions relate to article 275 of the criminal code — state treason.
“We’re probably … talking about mines and we need to find territories where the weather is more constant, where there’s no summer,” he said.
Mr Volodin, an ally of President Vladimir Putin, had suggested on Monday that such people, known in Russia as “relokanty”, should be sent to the far eastern region of Magadan, known for its Stalin-era Gulag camps.
Only for ‘vividly anti-Russian’ people
However Sergei Nosov, the governor of the region, objected, saying Magadan did not accept traitors — an idea he said was based on an outdated cliche that it was time to jettison — and was now home to hard-working patriotic Russians.
Mr Volodin responded on Wednesday, saying that returning and traitorous ‘relokanty’ — whom he called lazy wasters — should not be sent to Magadan, whose inhabitants he recognised had been insulted by such an idea, but to other, as yet unidentified places.
A video of his comments was posted on Telegram by another politician.
The Kremlin clarified its own position on the issue on Wednesday, saying it was not “on the same path” as Russians who had fled and adopted what it called strong anti-Russian positions, but that other Russians were free to return.
“Yes, indeed, we are not on the same path with these people,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said.
Mr Peskov told a regular news briefing that Mr Volodin had had in mind those who “vividly expressed an anti-Russian position”.
He said that others who had left, whom he described as people who freely choose where they live at any given time, were “the vast majority” and were always welcome to return.
“…Of course, these people always, no matter what, have their homeland — Russia. And she’s always waiting for them.”
Putin attacks US over Middle East
Russian President Vladimir Putin accused the United States on Wednesday of inflaming the Middle East by sending an aircraft carrier group to the region, saying “compromise solutions” were needed and that he hoped common sense would prevail.
The Kremlin chief has called the explosion of violence between Israel and the Palestinians a vivid example of the failure of US policy in the Middle East, which he says has taken no account of the needs of the Palestinians.
Following the surprise attack by Hamas militants on Israel on Saturday, US Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin said the US was moving a carrier strike group, which includes the USS Gerald R Ford, closer to Israel.
Mr Putin, speaking at an energy conference in Moscow, said the US move, which was also fiercely criticised by Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan on Tuesday, was a mistake.
“I don’t understand why the US is dragging aircraft carrier groups into the Mediterranean Sea. I don’t really understand the point. Are they going to bomb Lebanon or what?” he said.
“Or have they decided to try to scare someone? There are people there who are no longer afraid of anything.
“This is not the way to solve the problem. Compromise solutions need to be looked for. Of course, such actions are inflaming the situation,” Mr Putin said.
Mr Putin, who is locked in a stand-off with the West over Ukraine, accused Washington of sidestepping what was an established process for trying to settle the Israeli-Palestinian conflict by unsuccessfully taking matters into its own hands, and without resolving fundamental issues.
Describing the violence in Israel as terrible, the Kremlin chief said the wider conflict could not be resolved without addressing issues such as the creation of a Palestinian state.
He warned that any escalation of the conflict zone could have severe consequences for various sectors, including energy.
“First of all, it could affect logistics, insurance and freight,” Putin said.
“Of course, it will not affect (energy) production, but it could affect all other components that determine the state of the world’s energy markets.”
Reuters