The Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs makes a practice of the international sanction-free scheme to provide high-ranking Russians with a free pass to Europe and the United States, as well as to use diplomatic cover for importing sanctioned goods, military and dual-use components to Russia.
The Russian Federation has reportedly ordered 175,000 new diplomatic passports to be printed, prompting speculation about their possible use at a time when Western sanctions are affecting Russia’s ruling elite.
On April 12, the Russian Foreign Ministry made a state contract with JSC GOZNAK for printing 174,600 diplomatic passport forms to the sum of 306.5 million rubles. This number is 10 times more than the number the ministry staff itself; it numbers 15,000 people where only a third holds diplomatic positions.
In 2020, President Putin amended the July 2012 Decree ‘Approved List of Persons Who Are Issued Diplomatic Passports’. The document stipulates that ‘by the President’s decision based on petitions from the federal authorities’ any person can apply for a diplomatic passport.
Thus, the diplomatic passport decree list has increased up to 180,000 people, which is equal to the number of Russian Foreign Ministry-ordered forms.
This fact gives us the grounds to assume that in 2020 Russia already got prepared for sanction pressure increase and looked for the ways to avoid potential restrictions. While going to the UAE for a vacation Dmitry Kiselyov, one of the key Russian propagandist, obviously used a diplomatic passport for the trip. Thus, there is a high probability that a significant part of the sanctioned Russian officials will enter the EU countries on diplomatic passports.
Diplomatic passports are travel documents that are issued to accredited diplomats and government officials, such as foreign ministry envoys and others. Pursuant to the Vienna Convention of Diplomatic Relations, holders of diplomatic passports enjoy diplomatic immunity and are typically subjected to very limited inspections by security personnel when crossing international borders.
The Russian intelligence agencies’ staff may use several thousands of these diplomatic passports for their employees to operate abroad ‘officially covered’. These agencies are the following: the Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR), the Federal Security Service (FSB) and the Federal Protective Service (FSO).
By enjoying diplomatic immunity guarantees Russia would be able to increase its intelligence and subversive activities in the West. As a conclusion, since Russian citizens violate the diplomatic passport international rules the Vienna Convention privileges cannot be given to the Russian diplomatic passport holders.
