From January 1, 2022, new rules on secrecy and state secrets will come into effect in Russia
Photo: Alexander Miridonov / Kommersant
From January 1, 2022, new rules for the distribution of information containing state secrets according to the degree of secrecy will come into effect in Russia. The corresponding government decree was published on the official portal of legal information.
In accordance with the changes that are spelled out in the document, now the data will have three levels of secrecy – of particular importance, top secret and secret.
The first category includes information about military, foreign policy, economic, scientific and technical, intelligence, counterintelligence and operational-search activities, the spread of which is capable of damaging the interests of the country in one or more of these areas.
The government classified data from the aforementioned areas as top secret, but with the condition that their dissemination may harm not the entire country, but the interests of a state body or a branch of the economy.
The third group includes all other data from the list of information constituting a state secret, the dissemination of which may harm enterprises, institutions or organizations operating in the areas listed in the first paragraph.
The fact that Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin approved new rules for the distribution of information containing state secrets was reported in early November 2021. The updated version also lacks a clause stating that the heads of state authorities, as well as Rosatom and Roskosmos, themselves organize the development of a list of information constituting state secrets and are responsible for these decisions.
