Russia is banning high-ranking officials from quitting amidst war woes

Senior officials in the Kremlin are being banned from resigning from their posts while the war in Ukraine is still being fought according to reports from independent news sources. 

On May 15th, the independent Russian news organization Vazhnye Istorii, better known as iStories in English, reported that high-ranking officials in Vladimir Putin’s Presidential Administration were being banned from resigning their position while the war in Ukraine continued. 

The report quoted four unnamed sources who had inside knowledge of the situation, which included one former Federal Security Services officer, a political strategist, and two acquaintances of high-ranking officials in Putin’s Presidential Administration. 

“I am aware of at least two cases when governors tried to leave their posts,” one source told Vazhnye Istorii according to a translation from Business Insider. “They were not just banned, but hinted at criminal cases,” the source added. 

One of the sources who had an acquaintance in the Presidential Administration explained that there were many people who wanted to leave after the war began but they were prevented from doing so. “If everyone leaves, control will be lost," the source said. 

However, there were some ways out for officials looking to leave their jobs according to the iStories report, which specifically noted health reasons or corruption as two possible ways officials could be relieved from their positions. 

“Many are ready to pay well for the opportunity to leave quietly, unnoticed now,” one of the sources explained according to a translation from Newsweek. 

On May 18th, Britain’s Ministry of Defence weighed in on the reports in their daily war update on Twitter and noted that the high-ranking Russian officials were likely being banned from resigning. 

“The Russian state is likely effectively banning senior officials from resigning from their jobs while the ‘Special Military Operation’ continues,” the Ministry of Defence wrote in its May 18th Twitter daily update on the war in Ukraine. 

“The measures likely extend to at least regional leaders, security officials, and members of the powerful Presidential Administration,” Britain's Defence Intelligence war update added. 

The war update added that officials inside the groups affected by Russia’s unofficial ban are “likely highly skeptical” of the war and are also experiencing a high level of stress as they work to navigate what the Defense Ministry called Russia’s “dysfunctional wartime apparatus."

British intelligence also speculated that beyond ensuring no gaps were created by those who left, the move was designed to “prevent any impression of defeatism and to bolster a sense of collective responsibility for the war.”

Kremlin Press Secretary Dmitry Peskov said he could not confirm the allegations that officials were being banned from resigning and called it an unfounded rumor according to reporting from Business Insider, which pulled its information from RIA Novosti. 

This isn’t the first time there have been reports about Russia moving to stop its officials from leaving their positions. In April, the Financial Times claimed that Russian security services were confiscating the passports of senior officials to prevent overseas travel. 

Russian state company executives were also affected according to the Financial Times, which reported that Dmitry Peskov had said at the time that the move only applied to officials and state workers who were involved in “sensitive" areas.

"There are stricter rules for this. In some places, they are formalized and in some places, they depend on a specific decision . . . about specific employees,” Peskov told the Financial Times. 

“Since the start of the special military operation, more attention has been paid to this issue,” the Kremlin’s Press Secretary added.