New travel restrictions will affect hundreds of thousands of Russians: what will happen after handing over your passport to the Ministry of Internal Affairs

From December 11, Russians who have travel restrictions must surrender their passports to the Ministry of Internal Affairs. Otherwise, after five days they will be declared invalid. In any case, these people will not be able to travel abroad. The innovation may affect hundreds of thousands of Russians: here are debtors, conscripts, security officials, and those admitted to state secrets.

And even those who are not on the list cannot sleep peacefully – lawyers claim that, if they wish, a valid foreign passport can be taken away at the border from any person of any gender.

We found out whether this could become a “trial balloon” for the introduction of a universal visa to exit Russia, as was the case in the USSR?

Since November 24, 2023, similar rules have been in force in Belarus. The exit visa was completely legalized there. For now, only for those who want to leave the country forever. That is, now the state will decide whether it needs such a person or not.

As they joke now, the second season of the series is running in Belarus, but in Russia it’s still the first. After all, a number of measures were, indeed, first tested more than once by neighbors from a friendly power. So nothing can be ruled out.

“I think this is a common trick that we will only issue exit visas to those leaving for permanent residence,” says 42-year-old Minsk resident Andrei, who now lives in Poland. — How do the authorities know whether I’m going on vacation or for good? It’s much easier for them not to let me out at all.”

In Belarus, as in our country, we are talking primarily about representatives of the stronger sex. But, on the other hand, judging by the direction in which Russia is moving, nothing in the future prevents us from restricting travel abroad for unmarried and nulliparous girls.

But the same Belarusians, unlike our compatriots, will not be able to put a foreign passport in a safe: for them this document is a single document, internal and foreign, combined in one.

Especially many doctors left, including to Europe, where a diploma from a Belarusian medical university is valued.

“Doctors are in demand in Poland, where it is easier to obtain a residence permit; everyone just goes to Russia in droves, since there is no language barrier and naturalization is simplified, and they go everywhere. Belarusians are a hardworking nation, especially since they can pay lower wages than citizens. Although many work online for Western companies,” the residents themselves say.

However, over the past year the flow of Belarusians to Europe has dried up. Those who wanted to leave have already left; those who could not find a job or left on emotions returned.

Will a new wave of defectors cover Russia before December 11 (and that is when new restrictions will begin to take effect)?

“Now I live at home, I left in September 2022, returned in April 2023. To be honest, I don’t want to go anywhere anymore, I’m tired, I changed two countries, I understand that everywhere there are difficulties and the financial qualification for a residence permit has also been raised for Russians. But I thought about this question after the news about the confiscation of passports. But where and across what border? So far, no thoughts come to mind except for Kazakhstan,” asks Russian Leonid.

At the same time, the man understands that crossing the border is the easiest thing. In the future, we may talk about invalidating the foreign passports of those who still manage to leave their homeland before December 11. After which they are left literally without the protection of embassies and consulates and under the threat of deportation.

But most of all, Russians of both sexes are concerned whether the new rules will lead to the introduction of an “exit visa”, like the one that existed in the USSR.

In previous years, it was possible to leave the territory of the Soviet Union only by obtaining an exit permit, and to obtain a foreign passport you had to go through the Department of Visas and Registration, or OVIR for short. Documents had to be submitted to the organization strictly forty-five days before the intended trip to enemy capitalist countries, and thirty days if a person wanted to go to friendly CMEA states.

To the OVIR, the Soviet person brought permission from his superiors and a reference, as well as an ordinary passport and a detailed essay on why he needed to leave. All collected papers were transferred to the KGB to study the candidate’s worthiness, whether he would, for example, want to stay abroad forever. And for some reason no one asked the question, if the USSR is the best country in the world where social guarantees and human rights are respected, then why is it necessary to keep citizens there?

Marina SILKINA, Candidate of Legal Sciences:

– Most likely, there will still be no introduction of an exit visa for everyone in the Russian Federation. According to Art. 27 of the Constitution, no one diminishes the right of a citizen to free movement, entry and exit. But perhaps in the future they will establish a certain legal instrument within the limits consistent with ensuring the security of the state and protecting the constitutional order, which will make it possible to impose a travel ban on any person.

Today, the main document regulating the procedure for traveling abroad is the Federal Law “On the procedure for leaving the Russian Federation and entering the Russian Federation” dated August 15, 1996 N 114-FZ, as amended. The very concept of “exit visa” is not enshrined in law.