From an effective tool, with reasonable use of which the country could at least partially emerge from the demographic crisis, solve the problems of labor shortages, the migration issue in Russia has turned into a tool of profit for dishonest officials, has become an insurmountable bureaucratic barrier, including for millions of citizens who have long been living in Russia and working for its benefit. Rosbalt News Agency continues to publish articles about one of the most painful points of Russia's domestic politics – migration.
In 2001, by decree of the President of the Russian Federation, an interdepartmental working group was created to improve migration legislation. It was headed by then-deputy head of the presidential administration Viktor Petrovich Ivanov (now presidential aide). Obviously, the status of the person leading this group was meant to emphasize the importance the president attaches to this issue. That same year, at the Congress of Compatriots, Vladimir Putin said: "Still, often the attitude towards those who move to Russia is – I say this with pain – as if they are uninvited guests... Russia is interested in the return of compatriots from abroad. This is dictated by both economic and moral considerations." It seems all is crystal clear. Putin's words were received with gratitude and enthusiasm by millions of compatriots across the former USSR.
But the salvific laws, which for more than 10 years millions of Russian citizens outside its borders had been waiting for to return to their historical homeland (Russians and people of indigenous nations living in Russia), as well as compatriots from the USSR from various former republics, did not become the expected miracle. On the contrary, the new Federal Law No. 62 of May 31, 2002 "On Citizenship of the Russian Federation" and the Law "On the Legal Status of Foreign Citizens in the Russian Federation" of June 25, 2002 No. 115 became a real noose for all that was still trying to struggle under the yoke of bureaucracy and police lawlessness – because by that time, migration in Russia had come under the authority of the Ministry of Internal Affairs.
The whole absurdity of the innovations was that, among others, tens of thousands of servicemen of the Russian army who had permanent registration in the separated union republics before joining the service found themselves without citizenship, even though they had previously enjoyed the rights of Russian citizens. Many probably still remember that television interaction between citizens and President Putin, when one of the Russian army officers defending the country's borders in Tajikistan managed to address the president live with a request to help obtain Russian citizenship. And how many such poor souls were unable to reach the authorities?
It also turned out that the law equated millions of Russians and compatriots from the USSR to citizens from far abroad – applicants for Russian citizenship. That is, both Africans from Zimbabwe or Congo, and an ethnic Russian from Latvia or Crimea, and a Tatar from Kazakhstan, Tajiks, Uzbeks, and all the rest were equalized in rights to obtain Russian citizenship.
About 25 million Russians found themselves as migration outsiders overnight, cut off from their historical homeland, sometimes experiencing unbearable humiliation and suffering. As happened, for example, during the pogroms in 1990 in Dushanbe, when, according to eyewitnesses, local nationalists shouted "Russians, don't leave! We need slaves!" No less popular was the slogan in other republics – "Suitcase-station-Russia!" Today the intensity of passions has subsided somewhat, but this slogan is still 'in demand' in some regions of the former USSR.
But that's not all. The new law on citizenship did not eliminate the careless formulations of the old one, which in the most draconian way cut off the oxygen even for those who managed, without violating anything, to obtain the status of a citizen of the Russian Federation. These people still simply have their Russian passports confiscated for the sake of 'improving' migration policy, thus turning already established Russian citizens into illegals (!).
Here is one of hundreds of thousands of examples of flagrant lawlessness in the Russian expanses. Muscovite A., a citizen of Russia, at age 20, applied according to the law to the passport office to exchange his passport. Note that he came to the police department with a previously issued passport of a citizen of the Russian Federation, issued here when he turned 16. The head of the passport office, without batting an eye, confiscated his passport with the words: "You are not a citizen of the Russian Federation, and your parents are not either! Go to court!" Moreover, the citizen was initially not even given any certificate of confiscation. In essence, an official virtually stole the passport.
This despite the fact that citizen A.'s father served in the Ministry of Internal Affairs for more than 30 years, was transferred by order of the USSR Ministry of Internal Affairs to serve in Moscow in 1990, retired here, as they say, and receives a Russian pension. And his (citizen A.'s) mother worked in legislative and governmental structures of the former USSR and Russia since 1989, moreover, she had not only an internal passport of a citizen of the Russian Federation but also a diplomatic passport, represented the country's interests in official delegations to the UN. All of them had been living in Moscow since that time.
This family managed in just three months (due to their position) to prove the absurdity of the demands made by the newly-minted fighters for the purity of migration ranks. They had to go all the way to the Kremlin to finally get a document stating that "as a result of the conclusion of the citizenship department of the Federal Migration Service of Russia" they are recognized as citizens of Russia, and the head of the passport office was 'admonished'. Interestingly, under the same law, referring to the same article, this family was first recognized as citizens of the Russian Federation, then they were denied, and after complaints about the arbitrary rule of the local petty tyrant – the head of the passport office – they got their citizenship back. Well, isn't that absurd?
All those who are unable to fight the administrative machine and resist such humiliations are forced either to seek an opportunity to 'come to an agreement' or to go... to court. To sue, so to speak, themselves – to prove that they lived on the territory of Russia before February 6, 1992, presenting the same documents to the court that are ignored at the passport office. Former USSR citizens permanently residing in Russia precisely on the day the law came into force (that is, February 6, 1992) can claim recognition as Russian citizens – as recorded in the old law.
The same date and – importantly – the same wording guide the new law, which after 10 years (more than enough time to summarize law enforcement practice) should have taken Russian reality into account and spelled out the wording so transparently that no police chief could interpret it in his own way. However, this did not happen, and the theater of the absurd continues.
'The whole essence of the problem,' Yevgeny Bobrov, a well-known lawyer who has been dealing with migration issues for many years and has won more than one such trumped-up case in court, told Rosbalt, 'is in the interpretation of Article 13 of the old citizenship law: "Citizens of the former USSR permanently residing on the territory of the Russian Federation...". The new law did not bring clarity to this wording, and officials continue to be guided by it. The key word here is "residing". The authorities stubbornly insist: this means "registered". Although they undoubtedly know that the legal effect of the permissive registration was recognized as unconstitutional by the conclusions of the USSR Constitutional Supervision Committee of November 26, 1990, No. 11 and of October 11, 1991, No. 26 as contradicting the Declaration of Human Rights and Freedoms and international human rights instruments to which Russia has acceded.'
'In accordance with part 1 of Article 21 of the USSR law "On Constitutional Supervision in the USSR" of December 23, 1989,' the lawyer continues, 'the effect of by-laws or their individual provisions recognized as unconstitutional is suspended until this inconsistency is eliminated. They became invalid on January 1, 1992 (paragraph 3 of the conclusion) and did not apply on the date specified in the law – February 6, 1992.' That is, in this case, both from the point of view of Russian semantics and from a legal one, there can be no discrepancy: it is "resided", not "were registered". (Here it should be explained that Russia, as the legal successor of the USSR, must be guided by the laws of the USSR if they have not been abolished or new ones have not been adopted.)
And if we talk about refugees and forced migrants who arrived in Russia at the turn of the 90s, when the outskirts of the USSR empire were burning, what kind of registration could they have and where would they get it? Evgeny Bobrov also draws attention to the fact that no one has the right, according to paragraph 22 of the 'Regulations on the Passport of a Citizen of the Russian Federation,' approved by Government Decree No. 828 of July 8, 1997, to confiscate a citizen's passport (except for cases provided for by Russian legislation, and such confiscation does not fall under them). This norm, by the way, is specially written in the passport of a citizen of the Russian Federation on the last page. It is known that theft (or illegal 'confiscation') of a passport of a citizen of the Russian Federation is a criminal offense.
Today in Russia, according to experts, at least one and a half million people live who have not been able to legalize for more than 10 years due to flaws in the old law and due to glaring gaps and shortcomings in the new one. Note, these are people who have managed to integrate into society, found work, pay taxes, and create some part of GDP (according to some data, the share of migrant services is 7-8% of GDP).
'The new laws adopted in 2002,' says in his interviews the well-known journalist, human rights activist and head of the All-Russian Forum of Resettlers Lidia Grafova, 'established such a complex, as if deliberately confusing procedure for legalization that it became practically impossible to obtain registration, let alone Russian citizenship, in an honest way. But to buy it – please. The first step of migrants to integration is precisely legalization. But what kind of integration could be talked about if a person, even coming to his historical homeland – I emphasize, to the homeland – could not register anywhere? That is – legalize.'
Many experts say that they tried to stop the adoption of the law that is a noose for compatriots, primarily for Russians. 'I explained to the president,' one high-ranking Kremlin official said on condition of anonymity, 'that the adoption of the new law "On Citizenship of the Russian Federation" in this form is unacceptable. I tried to convince him that if it is adopted, it will primarily hit the Russians who have been sitting on their suitcases for several years waiting for an opportunity to integrate into Russia.' Alas, the law was adopted despite the warnings of all experts about its worthlessness, the damage it could cause not only to millions of compatriots who find themselves in a difficult situation and counting on Russia, but also to the country itself.