Recently, the Investigative Committee of Russia (ICR) loudly announced the initiation of the first criminal case for concealing a residence permit (RP) in a foreign country, Estonia, by a Russian citizen. The malicious violator was detained in the Leningrad Region at the Ivangorod border checkpoint.
A 51-year-old man who ignored the new law requiring notification to the FMS about obtaining citizenship or a residence permit abroad faces punishment – up to 400 hours of community service or a fine of up to 200,000 rubles. Experts have already seen a political subtext in the precedent. Lenta.ru tried to find out what the law could entail in practice.
“When this law was being passed, I asked one of its authors, deputy Andrei Lugovoi, who is it directed against? The answer was roughly this: with this law, we will identify potentially dangerous citizens who could betray their Motherland, and bring them under control. And those who themselves do not report dual citizenship or a residence permit abroad are all the more suspicious. Criminal punishment for concealing this fact is needed, in my opinion, to allow the full range of investigative measures to be carried out,” commented former deputy director of the FMS of Russia, head of the Migration XXI Century foundation Vyacheslav Postavnin to Lenta.ru.
According to the interlocutor, one of the main focus groups of the adopted law is people whose center of economic activity is abroad.
“This is an element of elite nationalization – people need to be pushed to repatriate their assets from abroad to Russian territory. Another focus group is people involved in opposition activities. A few years ago, having dual citizenship or a residence permit was cool. A gentleman's set: real estate abroad and documents confirming the right to live there. It was a source of pride. Now state policy has done a 180-degree turn. Now this source of pride is beginning to be hidden,” says Postavnin.
However, there is a problem related to citizens of CIS countries, primarily those who came to Russia from Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan. When submitting documents for Russian citizenship, they attached a certificate that they had renounced their previous citizenship. But, as the expert believes, actually no one can say for sure whether they have been released from citizenship there or not. After all, such decisions are made by the state.
“In Uzbekistan, hardly anyone is told that they have been removed from citizenship. And a person, without knowing it, may end up a citizen of two countries. The law may take on a life of its own regardless of what meaning its authors originally put into the document,” notes the specialist.
According to estimates by the Migration XXI Century foundation, the number of pseudo-emigrants in Russia today is approaching ten million people. Pseudo-emigrants are those who have either a second citizenship, a residence permit, a temporary residence permit, or a long-term visa that is constantly renewed.
“As a rule, all these people have real estate abroad. Usually it is about EU countries and the USA. Among the most popular countries are Germany, Spain, Greece, the Baltic republics. In terms of number of emigrants, Russians in Germany are second only to Turks. What will follow this law? Two things come to mind.
First – to count how much money and property Russians have abroad and how to bring it all out from there. Second – many people think to themselves: if anything, I'll leave. So, such an opportunity should not exist. So that before a person says how bad things are in Russia, he thinks carefully,” summarizes the former deputy director of the Federal Migration Service of Russia.
According to political scientist Igor Bunin, the practice of initiating criminal cases for concealing a second citizenship or residence permit will not be widespread, but will certainly be exemplary. And first of all, it is a hint to representatives of the Russian liberal community.
“Only a few percent of those who have a second citizenship or residence permit have provided information about it. The authorities decided to show in this way that punishment will follow: know what awaits you,” Bunin noted. Special attention, according to the political scientist, is focused on those who have dual citizenship or RP in EU countries. But law enforcement agencies will not bother people from the CIS, the interlocutor is confident. Also, according to Bunin, those with a second Ukrainian citizenship should not be too afraid either. “We have too many people connected with Ukraine, complications could arise,” the expert explained.
Meanwhile, professional lawyers consider criminal liability too harsh a punishment for failing to inform about dual citizenship or a residence permit.
“There is only one positive aspect to the haphazard adoption of new criminal law norms – the opportunity for law school graduate students to write dissertations on topics of inconsistency of legislative activity with the provisions of criminal law science. The legislator's opinion that without the risk of being prosecuted criminally, citizens will not comply with legal requirements could lead to a situation where criminal cases can be initiated even for smoking in an inappropriate place, since, judging by the number of smokers at train stations, administrative responsibility does not scare them.
As for the judicial prospects of these criminal cases, the court apparently will not have difficulties with their consideration, since it is a crime with a formal composition and the state prosecutor only needs to prove the fact that the defendant, without good reason, did not take measures to notify state authorities about his citizenship (nationality) of a foreign state or residence permit,” believes Oleg Popov, managing partner of the law bureau 'AdvokatPRO'.
According to the lawyer, given the simplicity of investigating such cases, it can be assumed that they will become an additional resource for law enforcement agencies "in effectively forming indicators of crime fighting, by analogy with the criminal cases widely initiated against migrants for using a knowingly forged document."
Yekaterina PETUKHOVA.
«Lenta.ru»