Something That is Long Overdue
According to various media reports, in February of this year, truly crucial changes can be made to the Russian Citizenship Law to eliminate the rookie mistake made by some Moscow officials earlier.
Namely: now, applicants will not need to renounce the citizenship of other states, if they have such, in acquiring Russian citizenship. It seemed as if the enemies of a strong Russia wanted to undermine it, and therefore lobbied for an absolutely absurd point, according to which the applicant should renounce other citizenships, yet there are no guarantees that he will receive the Russian one.
As a result, a person could appear to be without citizenship. Speaking in foreign, stateless. And in an unrecognized country this could completely block the possibility for him to travel outside the borders of his homeland pressured by recognized states.
Problems, Problems, Problems ...
Of course, in this situation, many people were forced to reject their wish to get a Russian passport. If you, for example, live in the Pridnestrovian Moldavian Republic, which, on the one hand, borders with the Republic of Moldova, and on the other hand - with Ukraine, while there is not even a meter of a common border with allied Russia, Pridnestrovian will not renounce citizenship of neighboring powers. Otherwise, how will you be able to leave Pridnestrovie for treatment, to see relatives, friends, buy a medical insurance policy in Chisinau, etc. Moreover, Pridnestrovian with Russian citizenship had not been allowed to enter Ukraine for a long time.
If PMR, like Abkhazia and South Ossetia, had a common border with Russia, then all events would have a different turn. But we live in reality. Therefore, actions must correspond to this reality.
The updated RF Citizenship Law meets the interests of both Russia and a number of countries oriented towards Russia.
Upcoming Changes will Benefit Both Russia and Its Allies
Russia gets hundreds of thousands, if not millions of citizens, who strongly support it, seeing Moscow not only as an ally, but also as a center of Eurasian integration.
It can be said that recently, the Russian President Vladimir Putin proposed to exclude the option where senior government officials could have any other citizenship, except for the citizenship of their country - the Russian Federation. In fact, there is no contradiction here. Many people who found themselves outside the borders of the Great Power, previously called the Russian Empire or the Soviet Union, found themselves in such a situation not of their own free will. First of all, it is a fault of the former rulers of Moscow - Mikhail Gorbachev, Alexander Yakovlev, Eduard Shevardnadze, Boris Yeltsin, Andrey Kozyrev and others like them. Nationalists in the former Union republics, including, for example, the Republic of Moldova, were bit players, stagehands. What could they do without the "blessing" of the destroyers from the "Center", paralyzing the actions of those who, on duty, were supposed to stop the subversive work of the nationalists from Chisinau to Sumgait ...
Now, the Russian government is fixing the actual betrayal at the turn of the 80−90s of the twentieth century. Many of those who wish to acquire Russian citizenship are not at all going to leave their homes. On the contrary, they see no reason to leave Pridnestrovie and some other regions of the former USSR.
This approach is absolutely correct, since it preserves the strongholds of Russia beyond its current borders. Without this, Moscow’s influence will inevitably be reduced to the limit, and somewhere it will simply disappear.
There is Much More to Be Done After the Adoption of the Amendments to the RF Citizenship Law!
The media has already dubbed the proposed new procedure for obtaining Russian citizenship "simplified." It seems that this is only partially true. It will only be possible to speak about a “simplification” if the Russian passports were actually issued to all those wishing, as had been the case, say, in South Ossetia and Abkhazia. In the future, this will help recognize the independence of Pridnestrovie on the part of Russia and protect the areas with sizeable populations of Russian citizens. This was done in the case of the above-mentioned Transcaucasian countries which for the record had been ritually called “integral parts of Georgia” by Russian diplomats for many years.
But there were more favorable circumstances for Moscow, Tskhinval and Sukhum, so one could forget about the imposed temporary spells.
However, this is a strategy and perspective. And now, one could wish that the amendments to the Law on Russian Citizenship be finally adopted and that no tricks of the reinsurers, who have already frustrated many of the Kremlin’s heady ambitions, would not interrupt a noble goal.
Let's hope for the triumph of a common sense. Moreover, even such a triumph will not mean "the end of story." Furthermore, it would be only logical to expect enhanced cooperation with countries where the number of Russian citizens will noticeably grow in all areas.
Speaking specifically about the Pridnestrovian Moldavian Republic, these areas are well-known.
This is the indefinite retention of the allied Russian troops on the Pridnestrovian land; direct, but not through Chisinau, financial and economic cooperation; supporting the independence of Pridnestrovie with the official recognition by Russia at the right time; cultural cooperation; preservation and development of Pridnestrovian technologies, industry and agriculture, and much more.
So let us wait. Everything should be fine!
The source: REGNUM News Agency. Author: Andrey Safonov
