After the start of Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, civil servants and employees of state-owned companies are required to hand over their passports to the FSB or to a special department at their place of work - "for storage". Anyone who refuses is threatened with dismissal, some have already quit on their own. This is reported by the investigative project Sistema with reference to an official of the regional government, the head of a state-owned company and the manager of a travel agency that organizes VIP holidays.
In some cases, the FSB officers hint that in case of refusal to hand over the passport, it will be canceled, so in any case it will not help when traveling abroad
In October, it became known that employees of the Rostov hospital of the Ministry of Internal Affairs were asked to bring their passports. Such an order came from the authorities. The doctors were asked to hand over their passports to the personnel department, and then they were handed over "for safekeeping to Glavk." It was alleged that this was done by order of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia and the Main Directorate of the Ministry of Internal Affairs for the Rostov Region: "Objections are not accepted." Some employees reported that they did not have their passports or that they had been lost. Those who could not find a passport had to, by order of the management, write an explanatory note about the loss of the document. After that, the passport will be cancelled.
The children of sanctioned officials, security officials and parliamentarians continue to visit NATO and EU countries, The Insider found out . Dubai, Bali, the Maldives and the Seychelles are also popular holiday destinations for travelers whose fathers are at war with Ukraine.