A draft law has been submitted to the State Duma, which aims to strengthen the rules for access to state secrets. The initiators were deputies of the State Duma Committee on Security and Anti-Corruption, reported in his telegram channel. Document published on the website of the lower house.
According to the head of the committee, Vasily Piskarev, whose words are quoted in the telegram channel, the amendments suggest that access to state secrets can be denied to a person if he or his relatives have accounts and deposits in foreign banks outside of Russia. , real estate abroad or access to foreign financial instruments.
According law “On State Secrets” access to classified information is now denied to citizens who, in particular, live abroad permanently or are entered in the register of foreign agents.
The decision on whether a particular citizen can have access to state secrets will be made by a special interdepartmental commission, Piskarev noted. According to him, the commission, in particular, will make decisions on whether to grant or deny access to deputy heads of federal executive bodies and state corporations such as Rosatom and Roscosmos.
In addition, the bill assumes that officials admitted to state secrecy will be required to inform that secret information has been attempted to be obtained from them.
As Piskarev explained, the changes are due to the fact that in the conditions of the military conflict between Russia and Ukraine, foreign intelligence services show an increased interest in Russian state secrets and Russian officials who have access. He believes that the proposed changes will help both ensure state security and protect Russians from the actions of foreign intelligence services.
At the same time, the Security Committee proposed to amend the law “On the procedure for leaving the Russian Federation and entering the Russian Federation”. According to them, people who work with state secrets and therefore cannot leave the country will be able to travel abroad in the event of “circumstances of a humanitarian nature” – for example, in the event of the death of a relative or need for treatment in another country.
