Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin approved a new edition of the rules for classifying data constituting a state secret as secret, top secret and of special importance. The corresponding decree was published on the official Internet portal of legal information, it will enter into force on January 1, 2022.
“The degree of secrecy of information constituting a state secret must correspond to the severity of damage that may be caused to the security of the Russian Federation as a result of the dissemination of this information,” the document says.
As noted by TASS, the grounds for classifying information as secret have practically not changed in comparison with the previous edition of these rules, which were approved in 1995. For example, the provision that the heads of state authorities, Rosatom and Roskosmos, vested with the authority to classifying information as a state secret, organize the development of the list and bear personal responsibility for their decisions on the appropriateness of classifying specific information as a state secret.
In addition, in the old version of the rules, the procedure for compiling lists of information that should be classified was specified. Now the document indicates only the grounds for classifying the data as secret, top secret and of particular importance.
The document specifies that information of particular importance should include information in the field of military, foreign policy, economic, scientific and technical, intelligence, counterintelligence and operational-search activities, the dissemination of which may harm the interests of Russia. Top secret information should include information from the same areas, “the dissemination of which may harm the interests of a state body or a branch of the economy of the Russian Federation.”
Secret information includes data constituting a state secret, the dissemination of which will harm enterprises, institutions or organizations that carry out military, foreign policy, economic, scientific and technical, intelligence, counterintelligence or operational-search activities.
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