Russian President Vladimir Putin enacted this Sunday, December 28, a law that eliminates the obligation to present income declarations for a significant portion of civil servants.
The decision, which changes several rules relating to the fight against corruption and control of assets, removes the requirement for transparency that until now applied to central figures of the State, including members of the Government, ministerial representatives, magistrates and the entire security forces.
Until now, all Russian civil servants were required to submit, by the deadline of April 1 of each year, detailed reports on their income and that of their spouses and children. With the new legislation, this obligation disappears for the political and military elite, although it remains for other sectors, such as teachers.
Supervisory authorities will only require this information in exceptional situations, namely in cases of transfers between agencies or when financial transactions exceed the equivalent of three years of the recipient’s income.
Shielding elites and internal control
The initiative is interpreted by experts as a strategic reinforcement of Russia’s financial secrecy, continuing a December 2022 decree that already prohibited the publication of these statements on transparency portals or media outlets.
Among Vladimir Putin’s main objectives with this measure is protection against External Scrutiny, as by hiding the evolution of assets at the top of power, the Kremlin makes it difficult to identify new assets that could be the target of international sanctions; the guarantee of loyalty of those targeted — the exemption works as a privilege granted to the sectors that guarantee the survival of the regime in a year in which internal and external tensions remain high; and a way of managing the conflicts that are emerging with the elite. Although the country has put hundreds of officials on trial for corruption since the start of the war in Ukraine, the replacements have often served to resolve disputes between rival factions within the elite rather than to alter methods of governance.