Putin to be allowed to hand out Russian passports to Ukrainians and other "compatriots" from zone of "armed conflicts"

The Russian State Duma has adopted a government bill on the simplified scheme for obtaining citizenship, in particular for Ukrainians, in the third and final reading today. This is reported by TASS.

The draft law gives the president of the Russian Federation the right to determine categories of foreign citizens and stateless persons, who are entitled to apply for the acquisition of Russian citizenship under a simplified procedure, for the so-called "humanitarian purposes".

As noted in the explanatory note, this will make it possible to give citizenship of the Russian Federation primarily to living in countries "with a complex socio-political and economic situation, where armed conflicts or unconstitutional change of political regime take place".

Head of the State Duma Committee on CIS Affairs, Eurasian Integration and Relations with Compatriots Leonid Kalashnikov earlier noted that this applies, in particular, to citizens of Ukraine. As previously reported, the armed conflict in the east of Ukraine in 2014 was untied by Russia.

Earlier, Russian President Vladimir Putin reported that Russia would facilitate the acquisition of its citizenship for Ukrainians and would not impose any restrictions on their entry.

According to the bill, persons who will enter the categories of applicants for citizenship under a simplified scheme defined by the president are exempt from the following mandatory requirements: a five-year residence in the territory of the Russian Federation, availability of a confirmed legal source of livelihood, exit from the existing other citizenship and knowledge of Russian. As first deputy head of the United Russia faction Andrey Isayev noted to journalists, there are about 3-4 million people in the Russian Federation according to various estimates, and some are not going to go back.

Vladimir Putin will be able to take advantage of new powers, issuing decrees on a simplified citizenship for specific categories of individuals. In particular, the presidential decree will be issued, according to which a number of categories of citizens of Ukraine will receive the right to receive citizenship of the Russian Federation under simplified procedure, - head of the State Duma Committee on the Development of Civil Society and Issues of Public and Religious Associations Sergey Gavrilov made it clear at the committee meeting on December 11.