MOSCOW, September 22 (RAPSI) – A Just Russia lawmakers have submitted a bill to the State Duma that would prohibit debt assignment to collection agencies, party leader Sergei Mironov told journalists on Tuesday.

According to the bill, the root of the problem is that “collection agencies use semi-criminal methods to force debtors to pay up, driving some of them to suicide or ruin, or they take over their flats, contrary to law.”

Mironov said that under the bill lending organizations (creditors) would only be able to assign debt to other lending organizations with debtor authorization.

This would deprive these so-called collection agencies of their questionable businesses, Mironov added.