MOSCOW, September 6 - RAPSI. The State Duma is planning a law that would obligate officials that have been in service for a long time to undergo psychological or psychiatric examinations, Izvestia reported.

Officials between the ages of 60 and 65 would be required to undergo such examinations.

The State Duma's initiative, according to Izvestia, appeared after a draft law seeking to increase the retirement age for state officials to 70 had been submitted to the Federal Assembly.

"This will be useful and we need to introduce it. We need to introduce it on the legislative level so that someone with a disorder cannot come to power or manage an office," Franz Klintsevich, a United Russia deputy believes.

"Plus, if the exam shows that the official has psychological issues we plan to introduce a provision in the law under which it would be possible to dismiss him.
But not everybody supports Klintsevich's initiative. MP Mikhail Markelov believes that an official should take such a test voluntarily.

Mikhail Vinogradov, a well known psychiatrist, believes that the initiative is necessary, but the age should not matter for the testing.