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More Russian Officials Face Ban on Foreign Bank Accounts

Bureaucrats' security clearance will be the main factor in deciding whether they should be barred from holding foreign bank accounts, presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov was quoted by the Kommersant newspaper as saying Tuesday.

President Vladimir Putin ordered federal and regional authorities to devise a list of senior government positions with "access to information of special importance" whose holders will be banned from having foreign bank accounts in a decree signed Sunday and published on the government's website the following day.

It remains unclear when the list will be compiled and how many bureaucrats will land on it.

The weekend decree amends legislation Putin approved in May 2013, which forbids regional governors, parliamentarians, members of the Central Bank's board of directors and other top civil servants from keeping cash beyond Russia's borders.

While the Kremlin has presented the measure as a way to thwart corruption, independent analysts have speculated that it represents a call for increased loyalty toward the state amid growing anti-Western sentiment.

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