Russia’s lower house of parliament today passed a bill that would allow its elected representatives to keep their income and assets secret, ending a transparency measure aimed at fighting corruption.

According to the bill, from March 1, Russian deputies will no longer be required to publish their tax returns, but only anonymous statistics will be published.

The bill was approved today in the third reading by the State Duma (lower house) and now must be ratified by the Federation Council (upper house), which is a formality.

The opposition movement of Alexei Navalny, who has been in prison for two years, has spent years investigating the enrichment of elected officials, ministers and high-ranking civil servants, denouncing the widespread corruption encouraged by the regime of President Vladimir Putin.

General information only

Navalny’s associates regularly used the tax returns of elected officials to highlight the discrepancy between their declared income and their standard of living.

One of the drafters of the draft law, Chairman of the Committee on State Building and Legislation Pavel Kraseninikov, said that only general information would be published on the website that deputies and senators had provided evidence and were complying with the anti-corruption law. Internet.

“All existing mechanisms for filing tax returns, audits, etc. remain in force without changes for deputies. There can be no talk of limiting control,” Kraseninikov said.

Source: APE-MPE, AFP.