Russia’s Supreme Court upholds police travel ban
The Supreme Court of Russia has upheld the ban which prohibits police officers from traveling abroad on private business, and dismissed the complaint of Maxim Luzhnykh, a former road patrol squad commander in Moscow’s Southern District, Radio Liberty reports.
Luzhnykh was dismissed from law enforcement in 2016 after he went on holiday to Bulgaria and the Dominican Republic. In his complaint, he insisted that the ban on international travel violates the Russian Constitution, which guarantees freedom of movement, as well as federal law, which bans travel only for persons in possession of state secrets, and does not apply to former police officers.
Representatives of the Interior Ministry, however, told the court that Luzhnykh had not been fired for breaking the travel rules, but for indicating in his report that he had spent his vacation in the Russian city of Sochi, receiving an additional three days of leave for this, while in fact he had traveled abroad.
The department emphasized separately that the decision on whether an employee can leave the country for personal matters is made based on the employee’s motivated report, and that it is thus not so much a ban as a requirement to give notice of travel plans.
Attorney Vladimir Vorontsov, who represented Luzhnykh’s interests in court, commented that the former police officer will certainly appeal the Supreme Court’s decision at the Constitutional Court and the European Court of Human Rights.
Luzhnykh tried first to dispute his dismissal at the Moscow City Court.
The Russian Interior Ministry has issued a decree regulating the right of civil servants to travel abroad on private business. Law enforcement officers are banned from visiting a number of countries without their superiors’ consent. Only 13 countries are authorized for visiting. Bulgaria and the Dominican Republic are not on the list.