Putin’s ‘loyalty cards’ are a new low for his regime

Loyalty cards in the West are used by supermarket chains to influence our shopping habits. They are fortunately absent from our politics, and we can freely speak our minds about public affairs, history and morality. In Russia it is different. The Russian TASS news agency reported on Wednesday that the Ministry of Internal Affairs has prepared a mandatory ‘loyalty agreement’ for all foreigners entering Russia.

Our supermarkets do not demand a personal declaration of loyalty, and our governments make no such requirement of visiting foreigners. But travellers to Russian parts will run into as yet unspecified trouble if they are thought to engage in ‘distorting’ the record of Soviet people in the defence of its Fatherland between 1941 and 1945. Other matters too are to be ruled unquestionable. The Kremlin’s traditionalist orientation in policies on the family and sexuality will be treated as sacrosanct. There will also be a prohibition on suggesting the desirability of changing pieces of Russian legislation.