“The draft ... provides for the possibility of recognition by the commission as native speakers of the Russian language without passing the aforementioned interviews of citizens of the Republic of Belarus and Ukrainian citizens who are fluent in Russian, upon personally submitting an application for recognition as native speakers of the Russian language and if there are grounds provided for by the first part of Article 331 of the federal law “On Russian citizenship,” the document says.
State Duma Speaker Vyacheslav Volodin said that this simplifies the procedure for obtaining Russian citizenship and eliminates the bureaucratic red tape of Russian-speaking compatriots and those citizens of the former Soviet republics who already live in Russia.
On December 12, the bill was passed on first reading.
Earlier, Deputy Interior Minister Igor Zubov introduced a bill that would include canceling an interview for Russian citizenship for fluent Russian-speaking Ukrainians and Belarusians.
As he noted, the initiative will help optimize the admission of Russian citizenship to more than 172 thousand Ukrainians and about 32 thousand Belarusians who permanently reside in Russia on the basis of a residence permit and are entitled to apply for citizenship.