Foreign parents will be deprived of the right to veto – Newspaper Kommersant No. 46 (7491) of 03.20.

The Commissioner for Human Rights in the Russian Federation, Tatyana Moskalkova, sent her proposals for the second reading of the new version of the law “On Citizenship of the Russian Federation” to the relevant State Duma Committee on CIS Affairs, Eurasian Integration and Relations with Compatriots. The Ombudsman proposes to abolish the condition under which a foreign parent must consent to the acquisition of Russian citizenship by a child born abroad. Konstantin Zatulin (United Russia), the first deputy chairman of the CIS Affairs Committee, told Kommersant that this long-standing idea did not find understanding in the presidential administration for a long time, but now it has been decided to meet its supporters halfway. At the same time, according to the deputy, it has not yet been possible to convince officials of the need to enshrine the concept of “compatriots” in the new law and simplify the acquisition of citizenship for them. The second reading of the bill may take place as early as April.

The presidential bill on citizenship was submitted to the Duma at the end of 2021 and approved in the first reading more than a year ago, on March 5, 2022. Recall that the document expands the powers of the head of state to determine the categories of persons eligible for simplified citizenship of the Russian Federation (in the current version, it defines them only for humanitarian purposes, but now for any). The requirements for admission to Russian citizenship for more than 20 categories of persons are being reduced. Among them are citizens of the former USSR and their children, participants in the state program for voluntary resettlement of compatriots in the Russian Federation, etc. The project also provides for a simplified acquisition of citizenship in connection with marriage only if the spouses have a common child.

Another short story introduces the institution of termination of citizenship of the Russian Federation (previously, the legislation contained only the concept of canceling a decision on admission to citizenship). The document also expands the list of crimes, the commission of which entails the termination of citizenship of the Russian Federation. It added some serious crimes against the state, as well as crimes in the sphere of trafficking in narcotic drugs and psychotropic substances.

The deadline for submitting amendments to the second reading of the bill expired in April last year. In October 2022, the chairman of the State Duma Committee on CIS Affairs, Leonid Kalashnikov (KPRF), said that the bill would be adopted by the end of the year, but this did not happen.

“The State Legal Department of the President is now formulating its point of view. There is a proposal to make some amendments, taking into account the current situation. But the mood lately is to pass the bill as soon as possible, ”Konstantin Zatulin told Kommersant. According to him, the second reading of the bill may take place as early as April.

As the deputy explained, “with great difficulty” it was possible to resolve the issue of eliminating inequality between children born in mixed marriages in Russia and abroad. Under the current law, children born in Russia are granted citizenship at the request of a Russian parent. If the family lives outside the Russian Federation, then in addition to the application of the Russian parent, the consent of the foreign parent is also required. “That is, a foreign parent acquires the right to veto whether to give Russian citizenship to a child or not. This led to dozens of human tragedies,” said Mr. Zatulin. According to him, he made amendments three times to eliminate this inequality, and the Foreign Ministry adhered to a similar position, but things did not move until the initiative was supported by Deputy Chairman of the Security Council Dmitry Medvedev, who headed the commission in the Security Council to improve state migration policy.

On Saturday, it became known that Tatyana Moskalkova, Ombudsman for Human Rights in the Russian Federation, sent her proposals to the Duma Committee on CIS Affairs that a child born outside the Russian Federation, one of whose parents is a citizen of the Russian Federation, could receive Russian citizenship by birth. She also proposes to exclude from the current version of the bill the provision according to which a Russian parent must provide a notarized consent of the other parent in order to accept a child into Russian citizenship.

State Duma Vice Speaker Pyotr Tolstoy (ER), in turn, introduced an amendment according to which foreign adoptive parents will not be able to apply for the termination of the Russian citizenship of the child. Similar amendments were prepared by the head of the Duma Committee on Family Affairs, Nina Ostanina, and deputy Alexei Kornienko (both from the Communist Party of the Russian Federation). “I really hope that our positions with Pyotr Olegovich (Tolstoy.— “b”) coincided,” Ms. Ostanina told Kommersant. “The reasons for this amendment are clear: we are challenged not only from the outside, geopolitical, but also internally, because the demographic situation forces us to fight for every child who has the right to remain a citizen of Russia.”

At the same time, Konstantin Zatulin notes that his proposal to fix the concept of “compatriots” in the bill, for whom a simplified acquisition of citizenship would be provided, has not yet found understanding in the presidential administration. “I cannot agree that the draft law, as well as the current law, does not use the concept of “compatriot”. Back in 1999, a law on state policy towards compatriots abroad was adopted, in 2010 it was changed, and everywhere there was a promise to compatriots that they have the right to a simplified acquisition of Russian citizenship, ”the deputy explained. According to him, opponents talk about the vagueness of this definition, at the same time, it is in the law on state support for compatriots, and on the basis of this definition, they receive citizenship under the state program to promote the voluntary resettlement of compatriots to Russia.

Ksenia Veretennikova