The citizens of the Republic of Moldova can no longer obtain the Russian nationality by a simplified procedure and can even lose the obtained nationality. This is provided in a new law on nationality that was proposed by the Russian President Vladimir Putin at the end of 2021 and was approved by the State Duma of the Russian Federation, IPN reports, with reference to RFE/RL’s Moldovan Service.
According to the quoted source, the deputy of United Russia Party Konstantin Zatulin asked to keep the possibility for the citizens of the Republic of Moldova, Ukraine, Kazakhstan and Belarus to obtain the Russian nationality by a simplified procedure. This procedure allowed reducing the period of stay of a person in Russia until an application for nationality could be submitted to a year or less. Most of the deputies rejected this proposal, as was Zatulin’s request to keep this right for the residents of the Transnistrian region of the Republic of Moldova, where the Russian language is the “official language”.
According to the Transnistrian leader Vadim Krasnoselsky, over 300,000 persons live in the Transnistrian region and about 220,000 of them hold Russian nationality. Another 60,000 were waiting to be issued with Russian passports last summer.
The new law also modifies the procedure for withdrawing the nationality. There will be now two categories of citizens: those who obtained the Russian nationality on birth (and cannot be striped of it), and those who obtained it in other circumstances (can be striped of it if they commit serious offenses or had provided false data about themselves).
The representative of the Committee on CIS Affairs Artyom Turov, of United Russia, explained that the legislative amendments are due to the international situation and the growing threats to the internal security of the country.
