FT: The withdrawal of foreign passports of Russian officials started

According to The Financial Times, citing informed sources, security services began to take passports from Russian high-ranking officials and managers of state-owned companies in order to prevent trips abroad.

Concerns are related to possible information leaks and flight.

The authors of the publication indicate that security officials have restricted public sector employees from traveling abroad, requiring some high-ranking officials to hand over foreign passports, the newspaper writes. Press Secretary of the President of the Russian Federation Dmitry Peskov commented on the message, noting that Moscow has tightened restrictions on travel abroad for some people who work in "sensitive" areas.

"There are stricter rules for this. Somewhere they are formalized, and somewhere they depend on a specific decision about specific employees," Peskov explained, "Since the beginning of a special military operation, more attention has been paid to this issue".

Those civil servants who have an average level of access to state secrets have been obliged since Soviet times to transfer their passports to the jurisdiction of a "special department" in state institutions and state-owned companies. However, according to ex-officials and top managers, such rules were rarely observed.

In the middle of last month, a bill was submitted to the State Duma suggesting the introduction of a ban on admission to state secrets for owners of foreign real estate. Salary allowances may be assigned to those who have access to state secrets, but at the same time their right to privacy in the event of inspections against them may be limited.