The communists have come up with new grounds for depriving Russian citizenship
State Duma deputies from the Communist Party of the Russian Federation Mikhail Matveev and Sergei Obukhov proposed depriving acquired Russian citizenship for committing two or more criminal offenses of any severity or three or more administrative offenses in the field of public order and security. Corresponding amendments to the Law “On Citizenship” entered to the Duma on October 1.
As the authors remind in the explanatory note, the current law allows “new Russians” to be deprived of a Russian Federation passport only for committing a number of crimes, mostly serious, such as terrorist crimes, crimes against the state, etc. At the same time, committing something not included in this list a crime by a person who already has a criminal record is not grounds for termination of citizenship. Meanwhile, recently in the Russian Federation, “cases of crimes committed by visitors from the countries of the former USSR and who have received Russian citizenship and who have several convictions for a previously committed intentional crime have become more frequent,” the deputies emphasize. “A situation is emerging where persons who have acquired Russian citizenship and have several criminal records... continue to commit crimes (offenses) and are not afraid of being deprived of Russian citizenship,” the document says.
In this regard, Messrs. Matveev and Obukhov propose to include a new item in the list of grounds for termination of citizenship: “the commission of two or more crimes provided for by the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation, or three or more administrative offenses provided for by Chapter 20 of the Code of Administrative Offenses.” Let us note that in this chapter (it is called “Administrative offenses encroaching on public order and public safety”), along with actions of an extremist nature (demonstration of Nazi symbols, inciting hatred or enmity, discrediting the army), very “light” offenses such as petty hooliganism are described and drinking alcohol in public places. The authors of the amendments are ready to make an exception only for Russians permanently residing in four new constituent entities of the Russian Federation.
It also follows from the documents attached to the bill that its authors contacted several law enforcement agencies with a request to express their position on the proposed initiative. However, the Ministry of Internal Affairs and the Prosecutor General's Office declined to comment, promising, if necessary, to present their feedback in the established official manner, and the Investigative Committee reported that they had “no comments or suggestions within the competence of the department.”
