Putin signed a law obliging State Duma deputies and senators to coordinate trips abroad, except for official business trips.
If senators and parliamentarians travel abroad without approval, their powers “may be terminated early.” The State Duma adopted this on July 4 — 410 deputies voted in favor. The Federation Council approved the document on July 7.
Similar rules were in effect before: in January 2023, the State Duma adopted amendments to the rules of procedure of the lower house of parliament and obliged deputies to notify about trips abroad. However, the regulations did not stipulate that senators and deputies could be fired if they went abroad without warning.
Representatives of committees and commissions must notify State Duma Chairman Vyacheslav Volodin about trips (he personally initiated the amendments), and other deputies — the Commission for Monitoring the Reliability of Information on Income, Property and Property-related Liabilities.
Last September, the Federation Council decided to issue a warning to Senator Lyudmila Narusova for traveling to NATO countries without approval. In July, Narusova flew to Istanbul, and from there to the French city of Nice, returning to Russia in August.
A TASS source in the Federation Council said that Narusova’s trip “discredits the status of the senator and the chamber as a whole,” since NATO is “actually waging a war against Russia.”
Kommersant wrote that in January 2023, regional deputies and officials were “strongly recommended” to refrain from vacations abroad due to the war in Ukraine.
For example, deputy of the Vologda Legislative Assembly Denis Dolzhenko asked to be released from his duties early after a vacation in Dubai, because of which he was criticized by United Russia. Deputy of the Kursk Regional Duma Maxim Vasiliev, who flew to Mexico for the New Year holidays, was also released from his post. The head of the region, Roman Starovoit, called Vasiliev’s behavior inappropriate.