"Russian citizens technically will not lose their citizenship," said Tanya Lokshina, a Russian researcher for Human Rights Watch, the US-based rights group. People who post casualty figures or alleged Russian war crimes in Ukraine can be prosecuted for "discrediting the Russian armed forces." "The strategy is not to deprive [Russian citizens], to strip them of their citizenship. "This is indeed a civil death law," said Lokshina, whose employer, Human Rights Watch, was designated an undesirable organization last year. "Putin isn't just escalating the war against Ukraine, he's also escalating the war on his own citizens," Bogush said.