Julian Robinson reports in the DailyMail.com that Russia is ordering all of its officials to fly home any relatives living abroad amid heightened tensions over the prospect of global war.
Politicians and high-ranking figures are said to have received a warning from President Vladimir Putin to bring their loved-ones home to the “Motherland”, according to local media. It comes after Putin cancelled a planned visit to France amid a furious row over Moscow’s role in the Syrian conflict and just days after it emerged the Kremlin had moved nuclear-capable missiles near to the Polish border.
The Russian site Znak.com (The Sign) claims that five different anonymous whistleblowers told journalists about the alleged informal warning. Russian officials, up to the highest level, were recommended to return back to Russia their children studying abroad, and to do so without waiting for the end of the school year, shifting offsprings into Russian universities, colleges and schools. Parents of state and elected officials should also return home to not lose the citizenship of the Russian Federation, if the older generation of the family for some reason resides abroad.
The recommendation will apply to all: from the staff of the administration, regional administrations and to all elected representatives. Even employees of public corporations will not escape the obligations. Those who procrastinate, waiting of the implementation of tacit request, were reminded of the already known cases when the next of kin of the stay of the younger or the older generation abroad became a complicating factor in subsequent career growth in the public sector, said one of the interlocutors. According to him, several such cases have been happen in recent months.
Varying severity of scandals related to the fact that the children of the Russian political elite are educated abroad, while their parents on television talking about patriotism and “blockade by enemies”, in recent years became permanent.
Kremlin official channels denied the existence of such recommendations for return of children and relatives. “I have never seen or heard about it,” – said President’s Press Secretary Dmitry Peskov, at the request of journalists to comment on these speculations.
Obviously, the rumors were leaking to the media after Vladimir Putin, speaking at a forum dedicated to the health care system modernization for Russia, said that if the “ordinary person” (average Joe) has the right to have a bank account abroad and to be medically treated, a similar strategy for the officials, especially high-level officials, “only shows that they do not want to work properly.” It is “a moral choice”, noted the President.
So if the upcoming months will demonstrate resuscitation in repatriation to mother-Russia, it could be easily a fact of “moral choice” and not a preparation for global war.
Tags: Putin Russia war
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