Russian security services are resorting to a Soviet-style practice of confiscating the passports of high-ranking officials and heads of state companies to prevent travel abroad as “paranoia about leaks and defections is spreading in the Vladimir Putin regime,” reports the Financial Times.

As Russia’s invasion of Ukraine still rages on, security officials have tightened travel requirements, asking some prominent figures and former officials to surrender travel documents, several people familiar with the matter said.

The heightened pressure reflects the deep suspicions of the Kremlin and the FSB, the successor to the KGB, about the loyalty of the Russian political elite, many of whom are privately opposed to the war in Ukraine.

Putin’s spokesman Dmitry Peskov confirmed that Russia has tightened restrictions on travel abroad for some employees working in “sensitive” areas. “There are stricter rules for this. Somewhere they are known, but somewhere they depend on a specific decision … specific employees, ”he told the FT. “More attention has been paid to this issue since the start of the special operation.”

Since Soviet times, Russian officials with access to medium-level state secrets have been required to leave their passports in a safe operated by a “special agency” built into their ministries and companies. But according to former officials and leaders, Russian intelligence agencies rarely followed the rules.

The situation changed after the 2014 invasion of Crimea, when security services began to warn against travel to countries such as the US or the UK. After the full-scale invasion of Ukraine last year, restrictions were applied much more widely and depended heavily on the “will” of individual security officials in state institutions.

“Russian intelligence agencies have almost complete freedom to interpret the rules under amendments to the laws on state secrets, espionage and treason,” said the former official, who resigned from the central bank after the hack last year and is now a visiting fellow at the German Council. international relations.

In February, Yevgeny Prigozhin, founder of the notorious Wagner paramilitary group, called for a complete ban on foreign travel for officials, as well as accountability for “the immoral behavior of their relatives, ostentatious displays of wealth, and misuse of luxury goods.” “.

Source: Financial Times.