Putin Signs Declassification Decree Into Law

After the Russian Duma has amended Article 5 of the Russian state secrets law, President Vladimir Putin has signed the amendments into law yesterday. The Duma (the Russian parliament) passed the amendment October 15 and the Federation Council approved it on October 29.

The amendments, officially titled the law “On amendments to Article 5 of the Russian law `On state secrets'", were passed to keep in compliance with transparency requirements of the Kimberly Process.

However it goes further then that, aiming to remove from a list of state secrets information on reserves, extraction, transfer and use of platinum, platinum group metals and diamonds. The new law does not include information about the stock levels held by the Gokhran – the Russian State Precious Metals and Precious Stones Repository - or Russian Central Bank.

The reason for the expanded information is, according to Russian sources, to modernize the Russian economy by making the precious metals and diamonds industries more transparent and attractive for foreign investment.