Law for people

On Monday, Russian Interior Minister Vladimir Kolokoltsev held a meeting of the interagency commission to implement the state program to facilitate the voluntary resettlement of compatriots living abroad in the Russian Federation.

The Minister of Internal Affairs said that much has been done lately in terms of improving migration legislation. In particular, the list of categories of citizens who can get a temporary residence permit outside the quota has been expanded, and a residence permit in Russia has become unlimited.

In addition, Kolokoltsev said that after providing residents of Donbass with the opportunity to obtain Russian citizenship in a simplified manner, more than 160 thousand people have already taken advantage of this right.

“In total, since April of this year, more than 160 thousand applications have been received at document reception centers in the Rostov Region, and 125 thousand people have already made decisions on admission to citizenship,” the Interior Minister said.

The decree on the simplified provision of citizenship to residents of the DPR and LPR was signed by Vladimir Putin on April 24. Relevant proposals before this have repeatedly been heard in the media by human rights organizations and State Duma deputies. The chief editor of RT Margarita Simonyan spoke about the importance of this step during a speech in the State Duma in early April.

  • The meeting of the interdepartmental commission on the implementation of the state program of voluntary resettlement of compatriots
  • © mvd.rf

According to the law, a decision on the issue of RF citizenship must be made within three months from the date of submission of documents. The President instructed state bodies and law enforcement agencies to assist in every way in issuing Russian passports as part of a simplified procedure.

As the head of state noted, after the outbreak of conflict in eastern Ukraine, the inhabitants of the DPR and LPR were deprived of “basic human rights,” due to the lack of Ukrainian documents, they faced great problems, for example, getting an education or traveling somewhere if necessary. Putin noted that the law will solve the humanitarian problems of people.

At the same time, the Russian side has repeatedly emphasized that the document is not aimed at creating any problems for the Ukrainian authorities, in particular, it is not required to refuse their Ukrainian passports when applying for citizenship.

Acceptance of applications for citizenship of the Russian Federation in a simplified manner in the DPR began on May 3, and in the LPR on May 6. From the very first days, huge lines lined up at the offices where documents were received.

Ready-made Russian passports began to be issued in the Rostov Region in mid-June.

“There is little, but the hope that this time the result of“ simplification of obtaining citizenship ”will really be“ simplification ”, not“ corruption ”, as in the past. And we will follow this, ”said Simonyan.

Meanwhile, on July 17, Vladimir Putin signed a decree expanding the number of residents of Ukraine who can apply for Russian citizenship in a simplified mode. This opportunity was given not only to residents of the self-proclaimed republics, but also to everyone who lived in the Donetsk and Lugansk regions of Ukraine before the conflict began, lasting from spring 2014.

Changes to the law were made by the president after communicating with citizens in a direct line on June 20, 2019. Then the members of the Lyulkovichi family living in Tatarstan, who fled to Russia in 2014 from Dzerzhinsk (Donetsk region), said that they could not use the simplified procedure, since the city was under the control of the Armed Forces of Ukraine and was not part of the DPR.

In response, the head of state promised family assistance and announced his readiness to amend the law so that they affect all residents of Donetsk and Lugansk regions who find themselves in a similar situation.

Compatriots move to Russia

During a meeting of the interdepartmental commission, Vladimir Kolokoltsev also said that the number of compatriots accepted under the state program in 2019 remained at the level of last year: “For the first ten months of this year, almost 92.5 thousand people arrived and registered in Russia. Positive dynamics persists in the Volga, Ural and, most importantly, the Far Eastern Federal Districts. Today 76 subjects accept compatriots, by the beginning of next year there will already be 80, ”the minister said.

He also reminded the members of the commission that over the past six months a number of significant tasks had been completed, as defined in the Concept of State Migration Policy.

“Foreigners whose parents or children are citizens of Russia, as well as graduated from Russian universities with honors, are now entitled to apply for a residence permit, bypassing the procedure for applying for a temporary residence permit. For qualified specialists demanded by the domestic economy, the requirement for the term of employment in our country for applying for citizenship has been reduced from three years to one year, ”the press service of the Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs noted, summing up the meeting.

  • Reuters
  • © Alexander Ermochenko

In addition, according to changes made to the state program, from 2020 Sevastopol will be among the entities for which a special procedure for developing regional programs is in force, and the status of priority settlement territory is assigned exclusively to the subjects of the Far Eastern Federal District.

Also during the meeting, participants discussed the implementation of the state program in the Far East, in particular, in the Kamchatka Territory, and also considered issues of information support and enhancing ties with compatriots' foreign public organizations.