Russia prepares law requiring foreigners to sign 'loyalty agreement'
Visitors might soon have to sign a consent forbidding them from expressing anything anti-Russia.
The law proposal to oblige foreigners to sign a “loyalty agreement” when entering is presented by the Ministry of Internal Affairs, state-controlled news agency TASS reports.
Foreigners will with the new law be banned from discrediting the state policy of Russia, like denying traditional family values. In other words, saying words that could be seen as “promoting LGBT” love will be illegal.
It will be prohibited to “abuse the right to freedom of information, including by disseminating information aimed at belittling or inducing the denial of constitutionally significant moral and other values, including the ideas about marriage as a union of a man and a woman, family, motherhood, maternity, childhood, propaganda on non-traditional sexual relationships.”
It will also be forbidden to “interfere with the activities of public authorities of the Russian Federation, discrediting in any form the foreign and domestic state policy,” the law text reads.
The penalty for violating the “loyalty agreement” is not specified. It is also unclear if the agreement has to be signed upon arrival in passport control or when applying for a Russian visa for citizens from countries in which Russia demands entry-visa.
Historical “truth” is another bullet point highlighted in the proposed law. By signing, visitors agree not to dispute Russia’s interpretation of the feat of the Soviet people in defending the Fatherland to “the victory over fascism.” In other words, if you visit Russia and start debating the Soviet-Nazi non-aggression treaty (Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact), you could be in trouble.
Russia in 2021 banned comparisons of the Soviet Union to Nazi Germany.
Weeks after Russia’s all-out war against Ukraine started in 2022, laws against discrediting the army were strengthened. Hundreds of activists, journalists and anti-war demonstrators have since been charged for violating the law as Russia steadily moves into the darkness of totalitarianism.
