The Russian Interior Ministry is working on an obligation for foreigners traveling to Russia to sign a “loyalty agreement” prohibiting them from criticizing Kremlin policies, amid repression of dissident voices since the offensive in Ukraine. The public news agency TASS indicated on Wednesday that it had had access to a draft law to this effect prepared by the ministry. According to this document, consulted by TASS, a foreign citizen signing this agreement will not have the right during his stay to “discredit, in any form, the foreign and internal policy of Russia”.
Values not to be depreciated
It will also be prohibited to “abuse the right to freedom of information, including by disseminating information intended to belittle or deny important moral values enshrined in the Constitution.” These “values” not to be criticized concern in particular “the idea of marriage as the union between a man and a woman” (enshrined in the Constitution since 2020). Foreigners signing this document will also be prohibited from disseminating information that “propagandas non-traditional sexual relations” or aims “to distort the historical truth about the feat of the Soviet people” in “their contribution to the victory over the fascism” during the Second World War.
The text also plans to prohibit foreigners arriving in Russia from calling for the modification or introduction of laws, or from having a “negligent attitude” towards the environment and the “material and cultural values” of the country, again according to TASS. “The loyalty agreement is an authorization from the authorities of the Russian Federation to allow a foreign citizen to enter Russia and the agreement of a foreign citizen entering Russia to respect prohibitions established in order to defend national interests of Russia,” the document states.
Sanctions greatly increased since the start of the war in Ukraine
The Kremlin, for its part, refused to comment on this initiative. “We have no comment to make,” Dmitri Peskov, spokesperson for the Russian presidency, said Wednesday during his daily briefing. The TASS agency does not specify what sanctions would be possible in the event of violation of this agreement. For the moment, the text has not been submitted to the Duma, the lower house of Parliament, for adoption. Since the attack in Ukraine at the end of February 2022, the Russian authorities have already very significantly strengthened criminal sanctions aimed at punishing Russian citizens daring to criticize the Russian army or state.
Many Western media, particularly Anglo-Saxon, fearing falling foul of these laws, have suspended or significantly reduced their presence in Russia.