© Alexey Shohorukov/Sputnik
State Duma chairman Vyacheslav Volodin backed the initiative voiced by the head of Liberal-Democratic Party of Russia, Vladimir Zhirinovsky, who said on Tuesday that his comrades had prepared a motion that, once introduced as a law, would "prevent bankers to whom the Central Bank has questions" from leaving Russia.
Volodin told Zhirinovsky that in case such a motion had already been prepared it would be reasonable to draft it as a bill, adding that the Central Bank had previously supported the idea.
The head of the Russian Central Bank, Elvira Nabiullina, said that her colleagues did support the move, adding that the Central Bank has earlier proposed to introduce such restrictions because investigations into financial crimes can take a lot of time and the return of suspects and misused assets from abroad can be an extremely complicated procedure.
The bill, mentioned by Nabiullina, was presented by the Central Bank experts in late September. Its sponsors said that they saw it as extremely unjust when bankers with tremendous debts flee the country and continue to live as rich people while people who have relatively small debts before the state in traffic fines or community fees can be stopped at the border and forced to pay or return.
Comment: Equality must start at the top. Unfortunately, the rich have other ideas and the means to pursue them. Russia may have part of the answer in proactively closing off the option to skip out and reunite with hoarded money elsewhere.