Russia’s security services are confiscating the passports of senior officials and state company executives to prevent overseas travel, as paranoia over leaks and defections spreads through President Vladimir Putin’s regime.

With Russia’s invasion of Ukraine still raging, security officers have tightened travel requirements within the state sector, demanding the surrender of travel documents from some prominent figures and former officials, said several people familiar with the matter.

The increased pressure reflects deep suspicion in the Kremlin and FSB, the KGB’s successor agency, about the loyalty of Russia’s civilian elite, many of whom privately oppose the war in Ukraine and are chafing over its impact on their lifestyles.

[Want to see how well Putin’s regime is keeping the affection of its subjects? This reminds me of the bad old days of the Soviets, whose claim to have created a proletarian paradise was obviously belied by the prison-camp policies preventing escape. The Berlin Wall was only the most literal manifestation of the Iron Curtain. Putin is erecting another one as he bleeds Russia dry, both fiscally and literally in a generation of Russian men, in order to pursue his equally insane vision of a Russian empire. — Ed]