War in Ukraine: the Kremlin gives a tax gift to soldiers and officials
Sylvie Claire / December 31, 2022
Russian soldiers and officials deployed in Ukraine will no longer be required to declare their income, the Kremlin announced Friday, under an exemption to anti-corruption laws.
This concerns those who work on the (four) territories," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters, referring to the four Ukrainian regions (those of Donetsk, Lugansk, Kherson, Zaporizhia) which Moscow claims to have annexed - but does not fully control - and where most of the fighting is currently taking place.
On Thursday evening, the Russian government issued a decree of President Vladimir Putin on "specifics" of anti-corruption rules "for certain citizens during the special military operation" in Ukraine.
According to the decree, military, police and security service personnel operating in Ukraine, as well as other officials sent there, are no longer "obliged to provide information about their income, expenses, property ».
The measure also applies to the "spouses and minor children" of the persons concerned and is retroactive to February 24, 2022, the date of the beginning of the offensive in Ukraine.
In addition, those concerned are now entitled to receive "rewards and donations" if they are "of a humanitarian nature" and "were received in connection with participation in the military operation" in Ukraine.
This new provision is part of the Kremlin's incentives to push Russians to fight in Ukraine: promises of large bonuses, banking and real estate facilities, financial aid to families in case of death or injury, etc.
In Russia, military personnel and officials close to the military-industrial complex are regularly convicted in large-scale corruption and embezzlement cases.