The State Duma expanded the powers of the president to issue citizenship
The State Duma of the Russian Federation today unanimously adopted in the first reading the law “On Citizenship” introduced by the President of the Russian Federation.
The document expands the powers of the head of state in the field of determining the categories of persons entitled to simplified acquisition of Russian citizenship, a PolitNavigator correspondent reports.
The President of the Russian Federation can determine the categories of such persons not only for humanitarian purposes, but also for any other purposes. These, in particular, may include citizens of Belarus, Ukraine, Moldova and Kazakhstan. In addition, the draft provides for a reduction in the number of requirements for more than 20 categories of persons when considering them for obtaining Russian citizenship, and also expands the list of crimes for which its deprivation is provided.
According to the head of the Main Directorate for Migration Issues of the Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs, Valentina Kazakova, it is expected that the number of people wishing to acquire Russian citizenship after the adoption of the law will increase by 20-30%. Last year, 735 thousand people received Russian citizenship.
Deputy from United Russia Dmitry Vyatkin criticized the current trend where the procedure for granting Russian citizenship is constantly being simplified.
“As practice shows, very unpleasant pitfalls are often hidden behind good ideas. Think about how many citizens with Russian passports are now fighting against our army in the LDPR and Ukraine. These are the people who received Russian citizenship thanks to a simplified procedure,” Vyatkin said.
He recalled that there are currently 11 million Russian citizens living outside Russia, who do not bear any responsibilities to the country.
“We should not be careless about proposals for the mass and uncontrolled provision of citizenship to all those who simply stated that they want to receive it. The uncontrolled distribution of passports devalues citizenship,” says Vyatkin.
In his opinion, the bill proposed by the president adheres to the golden mean between the widespread distribution of passports and control of this process.
His fellow party member Konstantin Zatulin opposed the fact that the concept of “compatriots” was excluded from the bill.
“Dear Valentina Kazakova, answering your questions, she used the word “compatriots.” But this word is not mentioned in the law, although in 2020 we introduced it into the Constitution of the Russian Federation. We must eliminate the scissors in our legislation, where one law says about the right to simplified citizenship by our compatriots, and the other says nothing about this,” Zatulin said.
He also drew attention to the fact that the provision on simplified acquisition of citizenship by those citizens of Belarus, Ukraine and Moldova who live in Russia was removed from the bill. According to the deputy, after 2014, a million Ukrainian citizens live in Russia without formal status.
“How long does it take in Transnistria to accept citizenship of Romania and Moldova? One day if you want it. How much do we have if there is no simplified procedure? Up to eight years old. If we remove the procedure for simplified receipt from the law, it will immediately be interpreted. Oh, you don’t want to see Ukrainian citizens in Russia - that’s what they will say in Ukraine. And this will be echoed by the entire propaganda machine. There is no need to make this mistake,” Zatulin said.
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