MOSCOW. Nov 16 (Interfax) - Plans to introduce so-called 'exit visas' for Russians have never been discussed and cannot be discussed, a high-ranking source in the Russian Foreign Ministry told reporters.
He was commenting on a parliamentary initiative concerning exit visas.
"Certainly, parliamentarians have to express their view on all kinds of issues. But in this particular instance, first of all, he retracted; secondly, no similar plans about some 'exit visas' have ever been discussed, as the Foreign Minister immediately stated, and cannot be discussed either," the source said.
Earlier media reports said that Vadim Solovyov, deputy chairman of the State Duma Committee for Constitutional Legislation and State-Building, suggested compelling Russian tourists to subscribe to the information concerning the situation in the country of their destination. According to Kommersant FM, he denied earlier media reports that he had proposed returning to the exit visa practice.
"Currently, our tourism law contains an article that compels travel agencies, at the behest of Rospotrebsoyuz, to sign a pledge to inform our tourists about the epidemiological situation in any particular country and issue memos [addressing] what they need to do if they fall ill and so on. Therefore, given the serious security situation we currently have, there is a proposal to make it compulsory, at the behest of our relevant services, to give similar information to tourists traveling through travel agencies, to warn them and issue memos about the terror threat index in any particular country," Solovyov told Kommersant FM, commenting on the initiative.
"For some countries, where a civil war is taking place, such as Syria or Yemen, it is possible to consider the exit visa issue, so that citizens understand where they are going to and what might happen," Solovyov said. "These pictures of journalists having their heads cut off by militants horrify a normal person, so for such countries it is probably necessary for a while, until some basic order is restored in how citizens' right to life is protected, it makes sense to consider introducing exit visas as well," the Duma deputy said.