The Kremlin is tightening rules around foreign travel for Russian officials over fears foreign countries could target them and obtain state secrets, Reuters reported on April 18, citing undisclosed sources.
According to sources who spoke to the news agency, even travel to countries with warm relations with Moscow is being restricted.
"You can't go anywhere at all, not even to Uzbekistan or Belarus for the May holidays," one said, adding: "You can go only if you have permission."
Reuters reports that pressure is being placed on all government ministries by Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB), driven by a fear that officials could be entrapped while abroad and forced into giving up state secrets.
Another fear is that they could be detained and extradited to Western countries as relations between Moscow and the West continue to deteriorate.
Elsewhere this week, a secret Kremlin foreign policy document revealed calls for Russia to leverage the war in Ukraine and exploit weaknesses in "unfriendly states" in order to forge a new global order in which the U.S. no longer plays a leading role, the Washington Post reported on April 17.
According to the paper, the document is a classified addendum to a public document titled "Foreign Policy Concept of the Russian Federation" and was obtained via a European intelligence service.
The secret part of the document calls for an "offensive information campaign" covering multiple spheres, including "the military-political, economic and trade and informational psychological" against what the Kremlin perceives as a "coalition of unfriendly countries" led by the U.S.
Chris York
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