The State Duma is discussing why instead of issuing Russian passports there is just chatter
Since 2002, Vladimir Putin has stated the need to simplify the acquisition of Russian citizenship for compatriots, but the instructions of the head of state are still sabotaged by officials.
RT editor-in-chief Margarita Simonyan stated this at a hearing in the State Duma, a PolitNavigator correspondent reports.
“It was said here today that once upon a time, in Soviet times, we scared away people who came from the republics, because we created conditions for them where they were humiliated, offended, and naturally, they returned with such a mood. Unfortunately, we do the same thing in relation to our compatriots, to the Russian people. We have a project “Not one-on-one”, we signed an agreement with the Ministry of Internal Affairs, and within the framework of this agreement we are simply saving people who are simply faced with the outrageous treatment that they receive here when they come for a residence permit, citizenship, or even return to their homeland,” she told Simonyan.
She gave several examples and noted that Putin’s order seventeen years ago to finalize the relevant legislation has still not been fulfilled.
“I’ll just give examples. A 93-year-old veteran of the Great Patriotic War, he was denied a passport due to the fact that his Ukrainian identity card was not valid in Russia. During the war, a man participated in the liquidation of the Bandera underground, guarded the Lvov railway - “We won’t give him citizenship.” We succeeded and were given a passport.
82-year-old blockade survivor Arkadia Maltseva. During the war she ended up in Donbass, became a refugee, and survived the siege of Leningrad, Donbass and shelling. Based on the fact that she had a “worn” birth certificate, she was not given citizenship. She sobbed in front of our television cameras, saying: “This is not fair, how can you?!”
There are tens of thousands of such stories. In 2002, I conducted a teleconference with the president from Dushanbe, where he promised to give citizenship to the Hero of Russia, warrant officer Kozlov, it was a famous story. And then he said: “The legislation in this area needs to be improved.” 17 years have passed. I just ask you: please improve it,” Simonyan urged.
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