The period for providing services for determining affiliation to the citizenship of the Republic of Moldova is extended from 20 working days to six months. Also, the period for recognizing persons as citizens of the Republic of Moldova – a service provided on the day of request - will be of six months. This is stipulated in a bill that was approved by the Cabinet on Wednesday, IPN reports.

The bill was drafted by the Public Services Agency, which invoked the risks to state security and public order caused by Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine.

“Thus, the geopolitical situation in the region, generated by Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine, has pushed up the number of people applying for citizenship of the Republic of Moldova, especially citizens of the Russian Federation and Ukraine. Over the last two years, out of the total number of applicants for citizenship of the Republic of Moldova, over 70% were citizens of the Russian Federation, while about 20% were citizens of Ukraine,” says the bill.

According to the Public Services Agency, following the examination of applications for obtaining Moldovan citizenship through recognition, there were identified attempts to get Moldovan citizenship through fraud, based on documents of unknown origin submitted by applicants. Those attempts were thwarted after the authenticity of those documents was established by making inquiries to the issuing authorities and asking for information from the Security and Intelligence Service.