Russian President Vladimir Putin has on Wednesday inked a decree to grant Russian Federal citizenships to individuals, permanent resident in certain Ukrainian districts, a right to apply for citizenship of Russia via a simplified procedure.
According to ANI news reports, citizenship of the Russian Federation was obtained by birth, as a result of granting citizenship and in events of changing Russian state borders in line with international agreements. However, the new bill provides a simplified and general procedure for obtaining Russian citizenship.
According to the new bill, individuals do not need to provide any residence permit and the citizenship will be granted without uninterrupted residence in Russia for fresh five years. The term considering the document doesn’t exceed six months, in this case.
In an official statement, Kremlin stated the term considering for citizens of Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan and Belarus, has been deemed to three months, in accordance with a four-party deal inked on February 26, 1999, which came into effect from November 4, 2000.
Russian citizenship could be obtained under a simplified method by two extra teams of foreign citizens, including stateless persons – the term considering time period for their application is three months.
The very first group includes individuals permanently and legally residing in Russia and are recognized as a native speaker of Russia through a special commission, which the interior ministry sets up with help of linguists and philologists.
The statement added, however, individuals need to vow to comply with the constitution and legislation of Russia, should have legitimate income with renounce foreign citizenship.
The second group includes individuals in the state program of assistance, in order to voluntary resettlement of the compatriots to the Federation of Russia.
In any case, if the individual’s application gets rejected then the applicant may re-apply for Russian Federal citizenship in a one-year time period.
Putin has inked the decree one-day after Volodymyr Zelenskiy was officially declared as the winner of the Ukrainian presidential election by the country’s election commission.