Duma allows government to restrict access to official statistics

MOSCOW, Feb 22 (PRIME) -- The State Duma, parliament's lower chamber, passed in the final reading a bill allowing the government to restrict access to official statistics temporarily on Wednesday.

The bill initially covered the republics of Donetsk and Lugansk, and the Zaporozhskaya and Khersonskaya regions. The legislators amended it in the second reading the government to set "special access to the official statistical information, including a temporary restriction of its publication and dissemination," the bill read.

The bill also allows the respondents in the republics of Donetsk and Lugansk, and the Zaporozhskaya and Khersonskaya regions to provide primary data on paper, rather than electronically, until January 1, 2026.

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