Russian government officials banned from taking foreign trips as fear of defections rises

Russia has reportedly barred government officials from travelling overseas unless they can present a document showing special permission for it. According to The Kyiv Independent, Russian Premier Mikhail Mishustin has barred public officials from leaving the country unless they can get their travel permits issued by the minister himself.

The new restrictions exempt officials working for Russia’s Presidential Administration, Kremlin. This comes after reports emerged that Russian security services were confiscating passports of executives of Russia’s state companies and government officials to stop them from travelling abroad and averting possible defections.

“There are stricter rules for this (travel abroad). In some places, they are formalised and in some places they depend on a specific decision . . . about specific employees. Since the start of the special military operation, more attention has been paid to this issue,” Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told the Financial Times earlier this month.

Former Russian officials asked to hand passports to authorities

In some cases, officers of Russia's Federal Security Service have also demanded erstwhile officials with knowledge or access to political secrets to hand over their passports. Ex-Russian central bank official Alexandra Prokopenko said that the restrictions have impacted even those individuals who possess security clearance.

“Now they are coming to certain people and saying, ‘please hand in your red civilian passports, because you have access to sensitive information for the motherland, so we want to control your movements’,” she said. “Basically any information can be deemed secret, so the embedded FSB officers start telling you that you have sensitive information. What is it? Why is it secret and who decides that? Nobody knows,” Prokopenko added.