In his opinion, the forced break in work since July 2002 is to blame - after the law came into force, the necessary by-laws, orders and instructions on the 'procedure for application' were adopted. As a result, the Moscow internal affairs bodies actually began accepting applications from citizens only on March 5, 2003.
Nevertheless, Alexander Barabanshchikov admitted that the new law is more demanding on future citizens of Russia. Although, for example, in Moscow the strictness in obtaining passports in 2003 will be partially compensated by an increase in quotas for issuing residence permits - up to 90 thousand in 2003. Colonel Barabanshchikov called this figure 'very large' compared to the 10 thousand applications that Moscow internal affairs bodies had previously processed annually. And holders of residence permits will be the first to be able to apply for citizenship. True, not earlier than after five years.
The head of the passport and visa department is inclined to consider most of the problems that arose after the adoption of the law both for those wishing to obtain Russian citizenship and for native Russians as a consequence of the disorganization and inattention of these people themselves. Let us recall that even Russian citizens who never left the country and did not doubt their status were in for unpleasant surprises after May 5. In particular, it turned out that one is not born a citizen, but becomes one.
Actually, Article 12 of the Law 'On Citizenship' states: 'A child acquires citizenship of the Russian Federation by birth if, on the child's birthday, both of his or her parents or the sole parent have citizenship of the Russian Federation (regardless of the child's place of birth).' But this does not at all mean that confirmation of citizenship happens automatically and that the document confirming the citizenship of minor Russians is the birth certificate issued by the civil registry office (ZAGS). Recently, it has become necessary to obtain an additional stamp on the certificate, for which one must gather a mass of documents (including extracts from the house register) and personally stand in the queues that immediately formed.
However, much bigger problems await holders of old Soviet passports who did not manage to move to Russia from CIS countries before February 6, 1992. People who left the national republics of the collapsing USSR before that date became Russian citizens automatically, while those who were at least a few days late must specially formalize their status - even if they were born on the territory of Moscow or any other Russian region. Human rights activists and leaders of public organizations of migrants claim that passports are simply not replaced for such 'inferior' Russians (and there are at least a million of them, according to various estimates). Moreover, over the past 10 years, the 'returnees' have acquired children, property and 'sources of existence.' But this will not save them from liability - up to administrative expulsion. They can legalize themselves only on a common basis with foreigners - 5 years with a residence permit on the 'waiting list.'
Colonel Barabanshchikov considers this quite fair, since 'such people had 10 years to decide on their status.' 'These are not problems of the passport and visa service,' the head of the department stated. 'It is bad that the newspapers did not explain to the population in time the difference between "citizens" and "non-citizens."' Alexander Barabanshchikov also warned that not a single year of permanent residence on the territory of Russia will be counted toward citizenship under the new rules for migrants of the early and mid-1990s.
Attacks by human rights activists on the new law 'On Citizenship' and migration policy in its current form are considered unfair in the Main Internal Affairs Directorate of the Russian capital, since, as the head of the passport and visa department is convinced, the law is correct, timely and takes into account international practice. Even with Vladimir Putin's assessment, who admitted in his address to the Federal Assembly that 'the laws that were designed to bring order to migration flows and make them transparent actually create serious problems for a large number of people,' law enforcement officers cannot agree. 'The president cannot be criticized, but this is populism,' Alexander Barabanshchikov remarked.