MOSCOW, April 1 (RIA Novosti) – Ramzan Kadyrov, leader of Russia’s Chechen republic, published an opinion piece Monday suggesting that a range of current and former high-ranking Russian officials should be banned from traveling abroad.
Kadyrov’s article, published in the Russian daily newspaper Izvestia, said that the travel ban should be imposed on “those who have or formerly had access to secret files of strategic importance.”
His spokesman Alvi Karimov appeared to suggest in comments to RIA Novosti on Monday that the proposal concerned primarily those who have left state service, saying that the Chechen leader was referring only to former officials who have had access to secret information.
Kadyrov, who has been accused of human rights abuses in the North Caucasus republic that he rules, expressed concern that some former senior officials move abroad after leaving their posts and that their luggage might contain data of state importance.
He speculated that the late self-exiled tycoon Boris Berezovsky, who was deputy chairman of Russia’s security council in the 1990s, could have kept classified data at his home in Britain where he was found dead last month.
Former Defense Minister Anatoly Serdyukov might decide to go abroad too if charges are brought against him, wrote Kadyrov in his patriotism-charged piece, explaining what had prompted the idea of a moratorium on trips abroad for certain officials.
“I’m only speaking about those who make it their life’s mission to serve the Motherland,” Kadyrov wrote.
He recalled the Soviet-era practice of widespread restrictions on travel abroad. Some of those conditions still apply to professionals who are employed by the state and have access to strategic information.
Mikhail Starshinov, a State Duma deputy for the United Russia party, poured cold water on Kadyrov’s initiative Monday, saying it was the job of Russia’s security services to oversee state secrets.
“… I concede that [the initiative] might receive support among the population,” Starshinov told reporters on Monday, adding that Russians would welcome any proposals for new restrictions targeting state officials.
(Updates earlier version of the story with comments)
