President Vladimir Putin has taken steps toward banning Russian government officials with access to state secrets from holding foreign passports as part of his recent changes to the Constitution.
Putin on Monday submitted a bill to Russia’s lower house of parliament that would amend the Labor Code to ban military and civil servants with access to state secrets from holding a foreign citizenship or residence permit.
Dual nationals will have six months to voluntarily renounce their second citizenship to keep their government positions, according to the draft law’s text.
The lower-house State Duma and upper-house Federation Council with pro-Kremlin supermajorities will need to vote on the bill before Putin signs it into law. The lawmakers have previously vowed to fast-track all legislation that would align Russian laws with the newly adopted Constitution.
Putin put forward the dual-national bill days after the State Duma passed legislation prioritizing the Russian Constitution over international law and criminalizing calls for secession.
Voters overwhelmingly approved a set of constitutional amendments, which pave the way for Putin to extend his 20-year rule and include a provision defining marriage as a union between a man and a woman, over the summer.
