Surviving Putin in exile
The news that yet another bill aimed at stifling dissent is now almost law is not surprising to Russians in exile. We are used to facing the Kremlin's wrath.
Late last year, for instance, the Russian authorities were given the right to take away citizenship from naturalized citizens. Criticizing the full-scale invasion of Ukraine or spreading "disinformation" about the war effort could leave you effectively stateless if you weren’t born into Russian citizenship.
The law currently affects those who "acquired" their citizenship, whose origins lie in other countries. But even before it was passed, Russian-installed legislators from annexed regions of Ukraine proposed expanding it to strip citizenship from anyone who dared to criticize the Kremlin. As a Russian journalist in exile who left precisely to be able to publicly question the actions of the authorities, such laws directly concern me.
When you live in exile, these issues become the soundtrack to your life, always playing in the background. Yes, you must be cautious, and yes, you might find yourself on the foreign agent list that the Kremlin updates nearly every Friday (we dissidents call it "Black Friday"). But these problems seem tame compared to the problems faced by dissidents still in Russia.