A growing number of Russian officials and people close to power in the Kremlin are being banned from traveling abroad to prevent them fleeing, some may have to hand over their passports to the FSB, according to a British assessment on Wednesday morning. .

What the UK Ministry of Defense says:

• After the start of the invasion of Ukraine, Russian civil servants and employees of the budget sector were subjected to increasingly strict restrictions on traveling abroad. Some officials may have had to surrender their passports to the FSB.
• Officials closer to the center of power face even tighter restrictions; Kremlin officials are banned from all international tourist trips.
• This is a continuation of existing measures dating back to Soviet times. Travel restrictions were tightened after Russia annexed Crimea in 2014.
• The move is likely to prevent increasingly disgruntled officials from fleeing or defecting.
• There is a real possibility that as security in the Russian state increases, travel restrictions will apply to more and more public sector workers.