The recent appeal by State Duma deputies of the Russian Federation to the president with a request to amend migration legislation and specifically the law "On Citizenship of the Russian Federation" was superfluous. According to "Vremya Novostey", a package of amendments prepared on the instructions of Vladimir Putin is already ready, and legislators will familiarize themselves with it in the near future. This was reported by the presidential representative in the lower house of parliament, Alexander Kotenkov. Thus, the head of state, who also faces elections soon, wittingly or unwittingly did not allow parliamentarians to score points on criticizing one of the most unpopular and controversial laws of recent years.
Let us recall that the new law "On Citizenship of the Russian Federation", which seriously tightened the conditions for obtaining Russian citizenship, came into force on July 1, 2002, and the past year confirmed the validity of the fears of opponents of this document. Human rights activists and many politicians have repeatedly pointed to the discriminatory nature of the law with regard to former residents of the Soviet republics. After all, former compatriots who moved to Russia after 1992, on a common basis with other foreigners, must now wait at least three years to obtain a residence permit, and then another five years for the granting of citizenship itself.
Moreover, in the spring, when the instructions and other normative acts ensuring the implementation of the law came into force, it turned out that even full-fledged citizens had more worries - it became more difficult to enter children into documents, and to obtain a foreign passport it is now necessary to have an additional stamp on citizenship placed at the police in the birth certificates issued by the registry offices.
Discontent with the new law both within the country and in the neighboring republics of the former Union ultimately forced the Russian president to change his attitude toward migration problems. In May 2003, in his address to the Federal Assembly, Vladimir Putin mentioned in rather harsh terms both the citizenship legislation and the Interior Ministry responsible for its compliance. The president acknowledged that the law "actually creates a barrier to the inflow of human resources, which are needed primarily for solving economic tasks and demographic problems." Moreover, in his opinion, laws that "were designed to bring order to migration flows and make them transparent" do not contribute to solving these tasks but rather create serious problems for a large number of people.
Presidential amendments were expected in the Duma before the end of the spring session, but the documents from the Kremlin did not reach the lower house even by the end of the parliamentary recess. That is why the deputies tried to seize the initiative and adopted an appeal to the head of state. However, as it immediately became clear from the words of Mr. Kotenkov, work on the package of amendments has been completely completed, and it is now being sent to the president for signature. Moreover, according to the presidential representative, it is not only a matter of correcting the law itself "On Citizenship of the Russian Federation" but also of introducing changes and additions to some other laws. It is expected that this will create a mechanism for facilitating the acquisition of Russian citizenship for certain categories of people. As a result, the Speaker of the State Duma, Gennady Seleznyov, had only to promise the green light for the presidential package. According to him, the amendments are expected to be considered in the first reading before the end of the autumn session.