More war. More anti-Western rhetoric. More domestic repression.
That, analysts and Kremlin critics say, will likely follow in the wake of Russian President Vladimir Putin's landslide victory in the March 15-17 election widely seen in the West as merely performative.
The latter is already in the making.
On March 14 -- a day before the start of Russia's three-day presidential election that pitted Putin against three unknown, Kremlin-picked competitors -- Vyacheslav Volodin, the speaker of the lower house of parliament, or State Duma, asked followers on Telegram whether they support banning copyright and other payments to artists, writers, musicians, or anyone else designated by the Russian government as "foreign agents."
Volodin, a staunch Putin supporter and his former first deputy chief of staff, later claimed he was inundated with requests to pass such legislation.
The outcome of Volodin's online poll was as preordained as the presidential election: 93 percent in favor and just 5 percent opposed, with more than 260,000 votes registered. The Kremlin controls an online army of trolls and bots it can deploy for such shows of support.
Many prominent Russian musicians, writers, artists, and journalists have come out against Putin's decision to launch a full-scale invasion of Ukraine, pulling back the curtain slightly on the Kremlin's claims that society is united behind Putin while also giving hope to those quietly opposed to his rule.
Known for seeking revenge against critics and political opponents, Putin has been targeting their income and assets ever since, determined to ruin them, experts say.
Aleksandr Cherkasov, a human rights activist at Memorial, which has been banned in Russia, called the latest proposal "a banal attempt to rob" artists and said it is reminiscent of the Soviet Union's repression of intellectuals in the 1960s-80s.
"Now we see an attempt...to drive the creator back into his cage," he told RFE/RL. "To return him to a wretched state where he is not his own master."
A Russian journalist designated a foreign agent and who asked to remain anonymous told RFE/RL such a law would put her into a financial corner because she would not be able to receive payment for her work. She expected further repressive actions to follow.
"[The authorities] will think of something else to ban," she said.
They already have.
There is a proposal in the Duma to deprive so-called foreign agents of the right to transfer their Russian property to third parties while abroad. Many Russians declared as foreign agents have fled the country amid fear of prosecution. The proposal comes on the heels of a new law that allows Russia to seize the property of those who criticize the armed forces or support Ukraine's territorial integrity.
Meanwhile, earlier this month Putin signed a law initiated by Volodin that prohibits Russian entities from advertising on the platforms of foreign agents, such as their YouTube channels. Many Russian cultural figures, political analysts, and journalists use YouTube as an important source of income.
Russians who have been designated foreign agents earned about 5 billion rubles ($54 million) in ad revenues last year, Volodin said, adding the law will cut that figure by 50 percent to 80 percent.
Katerina Gordeyeva, a prominent Russian journalist who is on the foreign agent list, considered shutting down her YouTube channel, which has more than 1.6 million subscribers, due to the loss of ad revenue. She is trying to get by now on revenue from subscribers and has curtailed the number of new videos published over the past month.
Boris Akunin, the pen name of Grigory Chkhartishvili, is one of Russia's most famous contemporary writers. He said he believes Russians -- especially those living abroad -- would be willing to pay for artistic content that had previously been subsidized by ad revenue.
"Everything is in our hands, not in [the authorities'] hands," said Akunin, who has also been designated a foreign agent.
The Russian government's repression of its creative class has not just been aimed at those on the foreign agent list.
Three days before the presidential voting began, the Federal Security Service (FSB) carried out searches at the homes of more than 20 artists in at least seven cities and took some in for questioning.
The searches were allegedly related to a treason case against Pyotr Verzilov, a member of performance-art collective Pussy Riot and the former publisher of the Mediazona website. However, many of those searched had no affiliation with him, friends of the artists said.
"Apparently, Russia is fabricating a new case, the aim of which is to round up the remaining artists in the aggressor state seen one way or another as participating in protest actions," said Denis Mustafin, a Russian artist who fled to France following a detention for his anti-war stance.
Putin signed the foreign agent law in 2012 following massive protests against his decision to return for a third term as president. The Kremlin leader said foreign influence was behind the demonstrations and began cracking down on NGOs receiving money from abroad.
Under the law, NGOs receiving funding from abroad had to designate themselves as foreign agents and submit to onerous financial checks that put many out of existence.
As Putin's repression grew over the ensuing 12 years, so too did the scope of the foreign agent law. Now anyone who criticizes Putin or his policies can potentially be designated a foreign agent.
Maria Snegovaya, an analyst at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, said the repression of the domestic opposition and Putin's anti-Western policies are two sides of the same coin.
"The final break with the West and the terror unleashed against the liberal opposition are links in one logical chain for Putin, since the KGB sees the liberal opposition strictly as agents of the West and in no other way," she wrote in a Facebook post.
There are currently more than 900 individuals and organizations on the various foreign agent lists, according to OVD-Info, which monitors political repression in Russia. More than 680 of them have been added since 2021.
Amid fears of running afoul of the law, Russians and Russian businesses have preemptively curtailed relations with individuals and organizations labeled foreign agents, giving the law even more effect.
"Now we will constantly face such self-censorship. The authorities do not even need to do anything; people will do everything themselves. They will shy away from us as from the plague," said the anonymous journalist declared a foreign agent.
As Volodin's initiatives show, the foreign agent list provides a convenient way for the government to place new burdens on the Kremlin's critics. Cherkasov said the creation of such stigmatized categories of people "facilitates the subsequent start of mass repression."
He said the number of politically motivated criminal cases launched under Putin is already several orders of magnitude higher than in the late Soviet period. Whereas such cases in the 1960s-80s were aimed at maintaining stability, the current repression is aimed at transforming society, he said.
Designated foreign agents who have fled abroad are not out of harm's way, experts say. Russia sought the extradition from Thailand of members of Bi-2, a popular rock group whose lead singer has been labeled a foreign agent for his criticism of Putin. The group managed to safely fly to Israel.
Russia has pressured some countries to cancel concerts and performances of Russian stars labeled foreign agents.
Grigory Yudin, a Russian sociologist who was designated a foreign agent in January, said history has shown that once a regime like Putin's Russia creates a list with "enemies of the people," it only grows with time.
"This is a train that travels in one direction," he said. "There is no way to turn it around. It won't end well for the people who are on these lists" regardless of where they live.
