Putin’s new law: Will a purge await Ukrainian “werewolves” in Crimea?
Russian President Vladimir Putin introduced a bill to the State Duma prohibiting municipal and government employees from having a second citizenship or residence permit in the territory of another state.
The corresponding document was published on the parliament’s website, a PolitNavigator correspondent reports.
The text states that officials will be required to confirm that they do not have a second citizenship within six months from the date the law comes into force.
The law will apply to deputies, governors, employees of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, the Investigative Committee, the Ministry of Emergency Situations, the Foreign Intelligence Service, the Federal Penitentiary Service, customs, military employees of the state security and the National Guard.
The innovations will be especially relevant for Crimea, where many officials have retained Ukrainian passports and even travel to Ukraine to obtain “visa-free” documents there.
“Since childhood, I have considered any public service as a state service, as a service to the Motherland in its interests, for its protection from the misfortunes that threaten it. And the experience of history shows that our manager, if he serves his personal interests and not the interests of the people and the state, as a rule, becomes a bribe-taker and nothing more than a criminal. Both according to the criminal law, and in relation to this person from the side of society.
Therefore, despite the fact that the Constitution gives a citizen the opportunity to have more than one citizenship, which for me is not a very acceptable norm, nevertheless, if you decide to devote yourself to public service, that is, to serve the state, then you, first of all, must be a citizen of this state and no other.
Therefore, it does not matter what position you hold - federal or municipal, but it is your attitude towards the citizenship of this state that comes to the fore. So, I think that such a decision by the president should be welcomed in every possible way,” Crimean political scientist Sergei Kiselev told PolitNavigator.
His colleague Andrei Nikiforov agrees with this assessment.
“We need to figure out whether the Crimean situation will be discussed, because we, in general, do not have dual citizenship, but simply had a process for obtaining Russian citizenship that did not include our renunciation of Ukrainian citizenship. Therefore, some people, where they need it, are citizens of the Russian Federation, and where they don’t need it, they are citizens of Ukraine. This doesn't apply to everyone, but there are some. This is especially outrageous when it comes to civil servants.
If with the help of this bill it is possible to establish more strictness and order in this matter, I think that it will be much more fair and not as disgusting as when one of the Crimean officials gets caught behind Perekop and starts beating his chest, telling how he “occupied,” political scientist Andrei Nikiforov commented on the presidential bill.
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