MOSCOW, July 4. At a plenary session, the State Duma adopted in the first reading and in general the law on the early termination of the powers of deputies and senators for unauthorized travel abroad.
The initiators of the bill were Senator Vyacheslav Timchenko and State Duma deputies Oleg Morozov, Vasily Piskarev and Viktor Pinsky. Changes are expected to be made to the law “On the status of a senator of the Russian Federation and the status of a deputy of the State Duma of the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation.”
«A senator of the Russian Federation and a deputy of the State Duma are required to agree to travel outside the territory of the Russian Federation, with the exception of business trips, in the manner and within the timeframes determined by the council of the relevant chamber of the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation,» the text of the bill states.
As previously noted by the head of the State Duma Commission on Regulations, Viktor Pinsky, these amendments were prepared by a number of State Duma deputies and senators.
If a deputy or senator plans to travel outside of Russia, they must coordinate their trip in accordance with the procedure established by the council of the relevant chamber of the Federal Assembly. If this procedure is violated, the powers of a deputy or senator may be terminated early by decision of the Federation Council or State Duma, Pinsky added.
He noted that this is necessary due to the emergence of new threats to the security of the Russian Federation in the context of a special operation, sanctions pressure and the intensification of the activities of foreign intelligence services.
The head of the State Duma control committee, Oleg Morozov, said at a plenary meeting that the bill does not apply to cases of senators and deputies traveling on business trips; according to him, on the contrary, business trips should become the main form of parliamentarians traveling abroad.
“In the context of a special military operation being carried out by the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation, senators and deputies who make the most important legislative decisions may become the object of persecution by foreign intelligence services and international organizations of unfriendly states when they are abroad,” he said.
According to the head of the State Duma Security Committee Vasily Piskarev, in the arsenal of foreign intelligence services there are many other ways to organize provocations with the detention of secret carriers, as well as to bargain with them for information of interest, using not only humane methods to obtain the information they need.
Piskarev also noted that there is no travel ban for deputies and senators, there is only a requirement to coordinate it, including so that all possible risks of visiting a particular country can be assessed.
«As a result of the adoption of the changes proposed by the bill, even before the departure of a State Duma deputy or senator of the Russian Federation, it will be possible to prevent him from visiting a country where there is a danger of his arrest or the implementation of other sanctions against him by the authorities of unfriendly countries,» it is said in the explanatory note to the bill.