Russia’s authorities squeeze exiled critics’ income

The authorities are looking to strip income for Russians who criticize the Ukraine invasion from abroad. For celebrities and artists, that means no more royalty payments, while for others it could mean halting any income they get from renting out property.

• Many prominent Russian artists who left the country after the invasion of Ukraine have continued to agitate in exile, playing concerts, giving interviews and rallying their supporters on social media. Back in April 2022, popular singer Monetochka and rapper Noize MC launched the “Voices of Peace” tour. Comedian Maxim Galkin, husband of Russia’s most famous singer Alla Pugacheva has nine million followers on Instagram and is performing across Europe and North America while regularly speaking out against the war on social media. Boris Akunin, one of the most popular living Russian authors, sold 259,000 books in Russia in 2023. All of them are designated “foreign agents”, and some are even regarded as extremists.
• The authorities are now finally moving to explicitly target their earning power in Russia. “Those who (seek to) destroy Russia by insulting its citizens, the participants of our special military operation, should not get rich at the expense of our country,” Duma speaker Vyacheslav Volodin at the start of November, announcing a new bill that would force foreign agents to receive royalty payments exclusively via special, effectively blocked, Russian-based ruble accounts. 
• The bill that would deprive foreign agents of their right to receive royalties in Russia went before the State Duma last week. Under the measures, revenues from book sales, or music performances, can only be paid into special ruble accounts from which it is almost impossible to withdraw funds — a similar system to that used for profits made by companies from unfriendly countries. The earnings would only be allowed to be withdrawn after an individual has their “foreign agent” status removed — or to pay fines or other fees that go straight to the government’s coffers. The Russian Authors’ Society, which distributes royalties, began paying into such accounts on its own initiative back in 2023. 
• This is already the second official move to cut off celebrity foreign agents from their Russian earnings following a complete ban on receiving advertising revenue.
• There are currently 491 people on the foreign agent list, including musicians Boris Grebenshchikov, Zemfira, Andrei Makarevich, Monetochka, Noize MC and Oxxymiron, writers Dmitry Bykov and Boris Akunin, along with other well-known cultural figures.
• It also became clear last week that the authorities are not limiting their aim just to celebrities in exile. Alongside foreign agents, lawmakers also have those who, in their words, “shower Russia with slop” from abroad while earning rental income from property in Russia, in their sights. “Living on the money from renting out an apartment in Russia while you shower your homeland in slop will be a problem,” warned lawmaker Alexander Khinshtein. 
• Many emigrants who left Russia following the start of the invasion use rental income on their former homes to help pay the bills abroad. It is not clear how the confiscation of those funds will be organized, but it is clear that this will be a big blow for tens of thousands of people — possibly more. The Bell estimates that at least 650,000 people left Russia after the invasion of Ukraine and have not yet returned.

Why the world should care

Volodin has made it obvious: just because you aren’t a foreign agent, don’t think you can relax or that we only care about a few hundred human rights defenders, journalists and opposition-minded cultural figures. In traditional Russian fashion, the new law will demonstrate how criticism of the authorities leads to unpleasant material consequences for those dishing it out, whoever they are.