Matviyenko says Russians have constitutional right to go abroad as she calls for resisting hype

MOSCOW. Oct 28 (Interfax) - Any law-abiding citizen of Russia has the constitutional right to leave the country and go anywhere they need to, speaker of the Federation Council Valentina Matviyenko said.

"From a legal perspective, our Constitution stipulates that any citizen of Russia has the right to go wherever they see fit and come back, and there should be no obstacles to them if they haven't committed a crime in the country they went to or left this country having committed an offence here, as described in the Criminal Code or any other kind of code," Matviyenko told reporters on Friday at the end of her visit to Uzbekistan.

In her view, there is no need to amend the Constitution in this regard.

"This must be a legitimate right of citizens. And one should never succumb to the excessive hype," Matviyenko said.