‘The decree that prevents people with debts officially declared in courts from leaving the country came into effect on February 1, 2008. Debtors may not be allowed to go abroad for up to six months,’ head of Sverdlovsk Region’s division of the Federal Service of Court Officers Sergey Vinogradov said to UrBC.

Vinogradov explained that this regulation only concerns executive orders issued by the court; the sum of the debt is irrelevant.

‘Some seventy people couldn’t go abroad last week alone,’ he added.