New laws announced by Putin are chilling

At the end of April, the head of the Kremlin promulgated a series of new laws aimed at further silencing and muzzling his opponents' voices.

Anyone who dares to stand against Vladimir Putin's policies, particularly his large-scale offensive in Ukraine, will be punished.

As reported by 20 Minutes, the new legislation criminalises "discrediting" the Russian army or calling for sanctions against Russia. These new laws prohibit, among other things, any assistance aimed at "implementing the decisions" of international organisations to which Moscow doesn't belong, which could thus include the International Criminal Court (ICC), which issued an arrest warrant for the Russian president in 2023.

Kremlin detractors sanctioned

According to another law, "foreign agents", i.e. those labelled as Kremlin detractors, can no longer sit on the boards of public companies. It's worth noting that the so-called "foreign agent" law, passed in 2012, makes certain administrative procedures very cumbersome and complicated. It also requires those targeted to present themselves as "foreign agents" on their social networks when publishing.

(MH with Manon Pierre - Source: 20 Minutes - Picture: ©picture alliance / Anadolu | Kremlin Press Office/Handout)