Bill banning payment of royalties to foreign agents practically ready - Duma member

MOSCOW. March 5 (Interfax) - A bill banning the payment of royalties to foreign agents will be discussed at the Russian State Duma as early as next week, State Duma Security Committee member Andrei Alshevskikh told Interfax.

"The bill is practically ready. I think our committee will discuss the bill as early as next week," he said.

The State Duma will discuss the bill promptly, Alshevskikh said. "Hopefully, most deputies will support this initiative, as they did with the bill banning advertisements on foreign agent resources," he said.

The bill aims "to cut the income received by such people from citizens of the country, which they have left and actively oppose, as much as possible," Alshevskikh said.

Earlier on Tuesday, State Duma Speaker Vyacheslav Volodin proposed on Telegram that a ban on paying royalties to foreign agents be considered.

"There have recently been initiatives to prohibit payments of copyright and related rights royalties to foreign agents - actors, musicians, writers - all those who engage in discrediting our Armed Forces, malign our country and, as a rule, reside abroad," Volodin said on his Telegram channel on Tuesday.

"It is unacceptable to feed the scoundrels, who sling mud at Russia, by transferring money to them at the expense of our citizens," he said.