The new law “On citizenship of the Russian Federation” is ready for the second reading. The Duma Committee on CIS Affairs has approved amendments that, for the first time in post-Soviet history, will allow the confiscation of Russian passports at the initiative of special services “for committing acts that constitute a threat to national security”. This threatens not the native Russians, but the Crimeans and the inhabitants of the so-called. new territories that received citizenship of the Russian Federation on the basis of the laws on joining Russia – yes, it threatens.
The draft law submitted to the State Duma in December 2021 by President Putin, after its adoption, should replace the law “On citizenship of the Russian Federation” in force since 2002. In the first reading, the initiative has was adopted on April 5, 2022. Only now has the matter reached the second reading: the Kremlin and the government could not agree on the amendments for a long time, given the changing and changing situation after the start of the special military operation, the head of the Duma Committee on CIS Affairs, Eurasian Integration and Affairs of Compatriots Leonid Kalashnikov (KPRF) explained to journalists. Moreover, the senators or deputies became the authors of all the amendments made to the text as a result.
Since the outbreak of hostilities in Ukraine, some politicians have proposed to withdraw Russian passports from those who have gone abroad – or at least from those who, in the opinion of these politicians, speak and behave “in unpatriotic way”. As a result, the most significant changes for the second reading were made to the chapter on termination of citizenship of the Russian Federation. But the words “deprivation of citizenship” are not there and cannot be: Article 6 of the Constitution of the Russian Federation states that “a citizen of the Russian Federation cannot be deprived of his citizenship nor the right to change it”.
These three methods of terminating citizenship that are being used right now will get you nowhere. Every Russian will have the right to demand that he refuse to be a Russian. And the forced withdrawal of a passport will continue to threaten only those who, being foreigners, have acquired Russian citizenship. For many years, the basis for such a decision by the authorities was one – the provision of knowingly false information and documents when obtaining citizenship, but since 2017 it has become possible to withdraw citizenship from the Russian Federation to convicted persons under the age of 18. terrorist and extremist articles of the Penal Code. The presidential bill initially proposed to expand this list of 12 other articles (including those that punish banditry, the organization of a criminal community, the organization of riots, treason, espionage, and also for a number of drug-related offences). But on the second reading, it “inflated” more than twice. The authors of the amendment, which included 52 other articles of the Criminal Code (some in full, some in part), are senators Andrey Yatskin, Andrey Klishas, Viktor Bondarev and Grigory Karasin.
Passports will, for example, be confiscated from those who received Russian citizenship and were found guilty of murder, intentional infliction of serious, medium and even minor bodily harm, kidnapping, rape, robbery, extortion, bribery… War crimes, loss of citizenship is promised by desertion, evasion of military service by feigning illness and – watch out! – non-submission or alternative civilian service. And also participation in riots, public calls for separatism and extremist activities, rehabilitation of Nazism. The list also includes an article about discrediting the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation and another about punishing forgery about the military. “I personally think that it is not very correct to drag the whole criminal code into the citizenship law,” noted Leonid Kalashnikov, head of the CIS (ER) Affairs Committee, during the discussion. of these amendments, he abstained from voting.
But the “icing on the cake” was the amendment of deputy Artem Turov (“ER”), supported by the representative of the president, the head of the Main Directorate of the Ministry of Internal Affairs for Migration Valentina Kazakova. It establishes an unprecedented basis for the termination of citizenship: “the commission of actions that pose a threat to the national security of the Russian Federation”. What actions are not specified: apparently, any that the FSB considers threatening. On the “fact” of their commission, the special service will publish its conclusion, send it to the Ministry of Internal Affairs within three days, and an appropriate decision will be written there. In addition, citizenship of the Russian Federation on this basis can be terminated regardless of the time of the commission of actions that create a threat to national security (at least ten years ago) and the date of detection of the made of their commission.
The proposal of the first deputy head of the commission, Konstantin Zatulin (ER), to make such decisions in court, was not supported by the majority of the members of the commission and the representative of the president. Ms Kazakova, without going into detail, only said that a national security amendment in this form “is necessary under present conditions”.
According to the conclusion of the FSB, it will be possible to withdraw passports only from Russians who have acquired Russian citizenship on the basis of an international treaty, upon admission to Russian citizenship, and from those who have acquired citizenship Russian “on the basis of a federal constitutional law. What kind of law? There are five federal constitutional laws on the basis of which Russian passports would be issued to foreign citizens in Russia: on the admission of Crimea, regions of the DPR, LPR, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson in the Russian Federation.
The only consolation for those who lost their Russian passports at the conclusion of the FSB may be permission to reapply in three years regarding the desire to become Russian again.
The second reading of the bill is scheduled for April 11.
