'The draft law has been prepared in the context of necessary legal support and further development of the state program to assist the voluntary resettlement of compatriots, and is also aimed at establishing favorable conditions for its participants to acquire Russian citizenship,' said Vladimir Pligin, head of the Duma committee on constitutional legislation and state building and a member of United Russia, who participated in the preparation of the document.
As another author of the bill, Vadim Gustov, chairman of the Federation Council committee on CIS affairs, told Vremya Novostei, in January 2009 a number of preferences for repatriates established by a presidential decree in 2006 will expire. Formally, all former compatriots who decided to take advantage of the hospitality of the successor to the Soviet Union had from the very beginning the right to obtain citizenship under an accelerated scheme – within six months. However, according to Vadim Gustov, this temporary provision, which in practice did not always facilitate the accelerated processing of Russian citizenship for resettlers, is ending. 'It is obvious that legislative changes are necessary for the further implementation of the state program,' the senator believes, 'so the document did not raise questions or objections from deputies.'
Equally speedy consideration of the document is expected in the upper house. As a result, according to Vladimir Pligin, neither the program participants themselves nor their family members will be subject to the generally accepted requirements for obtaining Russian citizenship. 'They will not need a mandatory five-year period of continuous residence in Russia from the date of obtaining a residence permit, a legal source of livelihood, or passing an exam in the Russian language,' the deputy clarified.
However, to become a full-fledged Russian, even compatriots participating in the state resettlement program cannot avoid registration at their place of residence. Despite the fact that the housing issue has become one of the main obstacles to the mass immigration of Russian-speaking specialists from the former Soviet republics, Vadim Gustov is confident that this time it will not prevent increasing the number of Russian citizens. 'When regions invite repatriates, the issue of housing is discussed in advance,' the senator noted.
Let us recall that since the start of the repatriation program, no particular excitement among former compatriots has been observed. Thus, instead of the expected 25,000 resettlers in 2007 (initially the authorities even counted on 50,000 repatriates) to 12 regions that were the first to express a desire to accept additional labor resources, according to the Federal Migration Service, only slightly more than 140 families arrived. Almost 5 billion rubles allocated in the 2007 budget for mass repatriation, according to Gustov, were almost entirely carried over to this year. During the experiment, only about 300 million rubles were spent on supporting the first repatriates, including relocation allowances, compensation for moving costs, medical and social assistance.
But both the FMS and the Federation Council are confident that the wave of repatriation will gradually 'gain momentum.' According to Vadim Gustov, relevant territorial programs have been prepared in more than 60 regions of the country. 'This year there will be at least a thousand families, at least significantly more than at the beginning,' the senator is confident.
Earlier, in an interview with Vremya Novostei, FMS head Konstantin Romodanovsky bolstered the optimism of those wishing to improve demographics through immigration, stating that the number of repatriates this year has already grown to 3,500 people.