Answering foreign organizations could be banned

The text in the new bill suggests making it obligatory to obtain permission from authorities before answering “the request of foreign governments and international agencies.”

If the text passes the State Duma and is signed into law, all information that is not released earlier would have to be approved, SLON magazine reports.

Russia has thousands of structures, federal or regional, that today share information with relevant international organizations and agencies. Within the Barents cooperation, many working groups and regional structures could be affected by the law, if approved.

Quoting from the memorandum to the bill, SLON writes: “This bill is aimed at solving the problem of ensuring Russia’s national interests in economic security.”

The parliamentarians suggesting the bill, argue that similar restrictions on transmitting cross-border information exist in other countries as well. 

Those violating the law would get fines from 50,000 rubles (€705) for single persons up to 10 million rubles (€140,900) for organizations or institutions.