Decree No. 801, signed on November 2, cites law No. 127-FZ of June 4, 2018, "On measures of influence (counteraction) against unfriendly actions of the United States of America and other foreign states." The Insider, which reviewed the document, reported it first. The mechanism itself concerns the accounts of deceased Russian citizens and is not limited to the property of individuals linked to foreign states.
It covers escheated property — ruble and foreign-currency funds, as well as precious metals held in bank accounts and deposits. The conditions: more than five years have passed since the owner's death, no inheritance case was opened, and the deceased has been removed from the tax register.
Previously the state had to obtain a separate notarized certificate of the right to inherit for each deceased person. Under the new decree, the basis for transferring the money will be a list approved by Rosimushchestvo, the federal property management agency. The agency will compile it from data supplied by the Federal Tax Service (FNS), the Federal Notary Chamber, the Federal Bailiff Service (FSSP) and banks.
The FNS is to collect data on deceased Russians, including information on the accounts and deposits they opened, by December 1. The data will subsequently be updated annually by October 1. The list will include those for whom the notary system holds no record of an inheritance case being opened and the FSSP database holds no record of enforcement proceedings.
Once the list is approved, Rosimushchestvo will send banks demands to transfer the funds. Banks will have 15 working days to move the money to a treasury account. Foreign currency will first be converted into rubles, and the value of precious metals will be calculated under the terms of the contract or at the Central Bank's accounting price.
If a bank finds other accounts belonging to the deceased that are not named in the demand, the money in them will also be transferred to the state. A separate clause of the decree allows agencies and banks to exchange information without breaching bank secrecy, tax secrecy or other secrets protected by law.
The absence of an opened inheritance case does not necessarily mean there are no heirs. The law allows for factual acceptance of an inheritance — when a person has taken possession of the deceased's property but has not formalized the rights with a notary. The decree does not provide for checking such circumstances before the money is transferred to the budget. If an heir later restores the deadline for accepting the inheritance through a court, they will be entitled to payment of the sum previously credited to the budget. The procedure for obtaining compensation, the deadlines and the accrual of interest are not set by the decree.
The state's right to inherit escheated property is enshrined in Article 1151 of the Civil Code and existed previously. The new document introduces a centralized procedure for locating the bank assets of the deceased and transferring them to the budget without the usual notarized formalities. The decree names ensuring Russia's economic security as one of the purposes of the regulation. The document contains no estimates of possible budget receipts.
In 2025 the State Duma supported an initiative to confiscate the money of deceased Russians into the budget, with the sum then estimated at several hundred billion rubles, The Moscow Times writes. The measure is being introduced amid a growing federal budget deficit: for January–September it stood at 5.2 trillion rubles, or 2.2% of GDP, according to the Finance Ministry. That is 50% higher than the same period in 2025.
The government is to prepare amendments by April 1, 2027, setting out the procedure for identifying property subject to transfer to the state by way of inheritance. The decree takes effect on the day of its official publication.