2023-05-23 22:17:17
The State Duma in the third, final reading adopted amendments to the law “On the procedure for leaving the Russian Federation and entering the Russian Federation” with a single list of grounds for invalidating international passports and the reasons for their withdrawal from Russian citizens. The document was submitted by the government to the lower house of parliament on August 12, 2021 and adopted in the first reading on November 17 of the same year, the second reading took place on May 18, 2023.
The grounds for invalidating a document are its loss, change of full name, gender or other personal information, death of the owner, termination of Russian citizenship, unsuitability of the passport or its issue on counterfeit or invalid documents. Diplomatic or service passports that are not returned by their owners following a business trip will also be recognized as invalid.
The international passport, according to the amendments, is subject to withdrawal from a citizen of the Russian Federation if he concludes an employment contract with an organization that provides access to information of particular importance or state secrets. Also, foreign passports will have to be deposited with the Migration Department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs or the International Financial Center subject to conscription for military service or alternative civilian service and received a summons from the military registration and enlistment office – within five working days from the date of bringing to them the decision to restrict the right to leave the Russian Federation. Documents will be kept “until the expiration of the restriction of the right of a citizen of the Russian Federation to leave the Russian Federation or the expiration of their validity.”
At the same time, the law does not refer to Article 15.1, introduced on April 14, 2023, of the law “On the procedure for leaving the Russian Federation and entering the Russian Federation”, which refers to a ban on leaving for citizens who are subject to conscription for military service and who have received a summons from the military registration and enlistment office, from the date when, in accordance with federal law, such a summons is considered served. Thus, conscripts who have received a summons from the military enlistment office will not be required to hand over their passports until the decision of the draft commission is made in relation to them, according to the Military Advocates organization. Experts do not rule out that documents will be confiscated from conscripts immediately following the meeting of the draft commission.
Passports of current and former FSB officers, in accordance with the amendments, must be kept by the special service until the expiration of the travel ban or their validity period. Former FSB officers may be limited in their right to leave the Russian Federation for up to five years following their dismissal. In addition, the amendments establish the procedure for the seizure of passports from those suspected or accused of criminal offenses, from those declared bankrupt, as well as from citizens who evade the fulfillment of obligations imposed by the court. Their documents are subject to seizure by the court, investigative bodies of the Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation or other law enforcement agencies.
Also, the adopted law provides for the maintenance of federal records – a data bank of not only issued, but also invalid passports, the press service of the State Duma reported. “Invalid passports will be subject to revocation, which can be challenged,” the lower house of parliament said in a press release. The authorities that issued the passport will be empowered to change the status of a previously issued passport to invalid, if necessary, which will make the system for recording documents more transparent, says Dmitry Gorbunov, partner at the law firm Rustam Kurmaev and Partners.
“It is also interesting that travel abroad to the CIS countries, where you can enter (depending on the country) with a Russian passport, may be limited, i.e. a domestic Russian passport may be invalidated, and this will also impose a restriction on a citizen whose right to leave limited – this is done in order to exclude abuse of the right to leave,” he said.
“Restrictions for conscripts will work in a duplicate format: if, for some reason, a conscript was not restricted from traveling abroad following receiving a summons, he will still not be able to leave the Russian Federation due to the invalidity of his passport,” says the managing partner of Key Consulting Group Vadim Egulemov.
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