The Russian Interior Ministry is working on a loyalty agreement that foreigners traveling to Russia must sign, prohibiting criticism of the Kremlin, when there is repression of dissident voices, the local press reported this Wednesday.
The Russian state news agency TASS declared this Wednesday that it had access to a bill prepared for this purpose by the Russian Ministry of the Interior.
According to this document, a foreign citizen who signs this agreement will not have the right to “discredit, in any way, the foreign and domestic policy of Russia” during his stay in the country.
It will also be prohibited to “abuse the right to freedom of information, including by disseminating information aimed at disparaging or denying important moral values enshrined in the Russian Constitution.”
These “values” that should not be criticized refer, in particular, to “the idea of marriage as a union between a man and a woman.” [consagrado na Constituição desde 2020].
Foreigners who sign this document will also be prohibited from disseminating information that “propagates non-traditional sexual relations” or aims to “distort the historical truth about the feat of the Soviet people” about their “contribution to the victory over fascism” during the Second World War.
The text also plans to prohibit foreigners arriving in Russia from requesting the modification or introduction of laws or having a “negligent attitude” towards the environment and the “material and cultural values” of the country, according to TASS.
“The fidelity agreement is an authorization by the authorities of the Russian Federation to allow a foreign citizen to enter Russia and respect the prohibitions established to defend Russia’s national interests,” according to the document.
The Kremlin, for its part, refused to comment on this initiative.
“We have no comments to make,” Dmitri Peskov, spokesman for the Russian presidency, said this Wednesday during his daily press conference.
The TASS agency did not specify what sanctions would be possible in case of violation of this agreement. At the moment, the text has not been presented to the Duma, the lower house of Parliament, for approval.
Since the invasion of Ukraine in late February 2022, Russian authorities have significantly strengthened criminal sanctions aimed at punishing Russian citizens who dare to criticize the Russian military or state.
Many Western media outlets, especially Anglo-Saxon ones, for fear of violating these laws, have suspended or significantly reduced their presence in Russia.
Source: TSF
