As expected, the procedure for acquiring Russian citizenship will be simplified mainly for former citizens of the USSR. In particular, the preferential option for obtaining citizenship will apply to former residents of the Soviet Union born on the territory of the RSFSR - they will acquire citizenship without observing the condition on the period of residence established by paragraph "a" of Article 13 of the law "On Citizenship".
Other citizens of the USSR can also count on a simplified procedure - a transition period is established for them. Before January 1, 2006, those who were registered in Russia before July 1, 2002, that is, before the law came into force, as well as those who received a temporary residence permit, must declare their desire to acquire citizenship. They will be issued Russian passports without obtaining a residence permit, observing residency periods, providing income certificates, and passing a Russian language exam.
The procedure for admission to citizenship is also simplified for students from the republics that were part of the USSR who graduated from secondary specialized or higher educational institutions in Russia. Veterans of the Great Patriotic War will also receive benefits - including, as stated in the draft law, home front veterans.
Preferential conditions for acquiring citizenship are also provided for foreigners who currently live in Russia and have been married to a Russian citizen for at least three years, or are disabled and have adult children who are Russian citizens. Foreigners can become Russian citizens even without being granted a residence permit - according to the amendments, their period of residence in the country will be calculated from the moment of registration at their place of residence, and not from July 1, 2002 (when the law "On Citizenship" came into force).
Benefits are also provided to citizens of CIS countries who served under contract in the Russian army for at least three years. True, for this, changes are also proposed to be made to laws concerning military service (read more about this on page 2 - editor's note).
The draft law will affect several million people. According to Deputy Chairman of the SPS faction Boris Nadezhdin, potential Russian citizens are divided into two categories. Those who live in Russia but have not yet received a Russian passport, according to various estimates, are from one to three million people. In addition, there are 25 million so-called former compatriots in the CIS, some of whom may also claim citizenship.
Vladimir Putin expressed his claims against the strict law "On Citizenship" (developed, by the way, in the Kremlin presidential administration and adopted by deputies in April 2002) in May. Speaking with a message to parliament, the president stated that the law, which tightened the rules for obtaining Russian citizenship, needed to be urgently refined. By that time, several deputy amendments had already been submitted to the State Duma. However, the deputies were unable to change the law on their own: during the meeting at which the deputies' proposals were to be considered, the president's representative Alexander Kotenkov asked parliamentarians not to rush. Even then he said that a package of relevant amendments had been developed in the presidential administration and would soon be submitted to the State Duma. Only after the session ended did it become clear that the document was not ready - the Kremlin promised to finalize it over the summer so that a final version could be made in the fall.
After returning from recess to the State Duma, the deputies found that no amendments had been submitted. The parliamentarians politely reminded the head of state of what was promised. In their address to the president, it was said: "Over the past time, law enforcement practice has shown numerous shortcomings of this law, which created serious difficulties in obtaining citizenship of the Russian Federation for millions of our compatriots." The State Duma urgently asked Putin to again instruct the commission on citizenship issues, the Foreign Ministry and the Interior Ministry to submit amendments. In response, the presidential administration said that the draft law was ready - Vladimir Putin only had to sign it.
According to deputy Nadezhdin, all proposals of the presidential draft law have been voiced repeatedly in the State Duma - both before the adoption of the 2002 law "On Citizenship" and after it came into force. But then they did not pass. At first this was due to the Kremlin's position. When developing the law "On Citizenship", its developers stated that the law should be strict, because "those who wanted to obtain citizenship had already done so long ago" (under the "Yeltsin" law of 1991). However, when too many voices began to be raised in defense of former compatriots, the Kremlin apparently decided to soften the law. As stated by Vice Speaker of the Russian Parliament Lyubov Sliska, the draft law, marked as urgent, will be considered in the first reading as soon as deputies return from the regions - that is, in about a week. And the draft law is planned to be finally adopted before the new year.