Federal Security Service officials will be fired for owning real estate abroad, holding dual citizenship or joining a political party, according to a bill approved in both the second and third readings by the State Duma on Wednesday.
Employment in the FSB would also be closed to people with a criminal record or those who refuse to take drug tests or be fingerprinted. Spreading contact information about themselves or co-workers on social media may provide grounds for dismissal, according to the bill, which is available on the Duma’s .
Officials who currently own real estate abroad must sell it or leave the service. If an FSB officer inherits or is given property outside Russia, he or she must get rid of it within six months.
The new rules also impose travel restrictions on FSB officers, who would not be allowed to visit CIS countries without permission from their superiors, the bill’s co-author Mikhail Grishankov said last week. But he added that the restrictions would be decided on a case-by-case basis.
“If a worker, for example, is cleaning FSB offices, imposing travel restrictions on him is pointless,” Grishankov RIA-Novosti. “Specific restrictions will be written in each job contract.”
The bill, intended to clean up the ranks of the FSB, was introduced by United Russia and sailed through the Duma, passing all three required readings in about a week.
Now the document has to be approved by the Federation Council and signed into law by President Dmitry Medvedev.