Russia to require foreigners to sign ‘loyalty agreement’

Russia is reported to be preparing to introduce laws that would require foreign visitors to sign a “loyalty agreement”.

The interior ministry is preparing the legislation that would bar visitors from criticising Russian policy or discrediting Soviet history. It would also require that they respect traditional Russian family values, culture and environment, state news agency TASS reported on Wednesday.

All foreigners would have to sign the pledge, which would, in effect, control what they can say and do while in Russia.

This means visitors would be prohibited from “interfering with the activities of public authorities of the Russian Federation, discrediting in any form the foreign and domestic state policy of the Russian Federation, public authorities and their officials,” the report said.

For the draft to become law, the document has to be introduced to the State Duma, Russia’s lower house of parliament, and to go through committee review and several readings before being submitted to President Vladimir Putin for signing.

Officials told state news agency Interfax that the legislation is being worked on by the interior ministry, the government, and the presidential administration and is well advanced.

Lieutenant General Valentina Kazakova, head of the ministry’s Main Directorate for Migration, told TASS, “The bill is currently under discussion and will be submitted to the State Duma shortly.”

Silent history

In particular, foreigners would be barred from “distorting the historical truth about the feat of the Soviet people in the defence of the Fatherland and its contribution to the victory over fascism,” the draft bill reads, according to TASS.