The lawyer spoke about the grounds for depriving Valery Meladze of Russian citizenship

It is much easier to deprive awards and titles

After the singer Valery Meladze publicly uttered the Ukrainian Nazi salute in an undertone, many started talking about depriving the artist of Russian citizenship. Is this possible, said Igor Trunov, President of the Union of Lawyers of Russia.

The incident occurred at a New Year’s corporate party in Dubai: in response to the greeting of one of those present “Glory to Ukraine”, the musician replied: “Glory to the heroes.” Meladze in the frame asked not to draw the attention of the audience to his words, but his words were widely distributed on social networks.

The answer came immediately: the artist was condemned by many public and political figures, as well as colleagues in the shop. In particular, the leader of A Just Russia – For the Truth, Sergei Mironov, proposed to deprive Meladze of all the titles, which he has a lot of. In particular, he is an Honored Artist of Russia, a People’s Artist of Chechnya, and a member of the Public Chamber of Krasnogorsk near Moscow. Senator from the Orenburg region Elena Afanasyeva proposed to take away the singer’s citizenship.

Igor Trunov explained to MK that there could be many grounds for deprivation of citizenship: “For example, when a person received citizenship, he could mislead the authorities, give inaccurate information: there is a whole range of parameters by which the decision to grant citizenship can be canceled” .

However, this applies only to people who were born in another country, those who received citizenship by birth, this does not apply. In this case, there can be no talk of deprivation, the lawyer emphasizes, this is spelled out in the Constitution. However, Meladze is a native of Batumi (Georgia). The lawyer recalls that in recent years a large number of citizens of the former Soviet republics have come to Russia, some of them entered into a fictitious marriage, some hid a criminal record, someone else was somehow guilty. After some time, this may be discovered and the decision to grant citizenship may be annulled. A detailed check of the dossier can give a result in this case. “In this situation, the issue does not rest on the Constitution,” Trunov specified.

MK also asked if Meladze could have obtained citizenship in a simplified manner, as residents of new regions of Russia received it. “This is a procedural thing: new regions, their inhabitants, on the basis of the law, receive Russian citizenship,” the expert said. – Citizenship is not granted by birth and is not linked to a constitutional provision. For one reason or another, the decision may be revised. For example, a repeatedly convicted thief-recidivist cannot obtain Russian citizenship.

There may be a flexible solution, both in the speed of accepting these people, and in the restrictions that are regulated by law. It clearly spells out how a citizen can be assimilated and become a citizen.”

There are other restrictions as well. For example, when a person fought on the opposite side, participated in terrorist attacks, shot Russian servicemen, he should not become our fellow citizen. But if such a person was born in Russia, then nothing can be done about his citizenship. But to give him life imprisonment is quite possible.

However, Meladze received citizenship before the annexation of new territories, and these rules are hardly applicable to him.

As for awards and titles – a separate story. There are certain regulations that regulate the criteria for their award, and if something is wrong, the award can be taken away. It’s even easier to amend the statute on awards. And if we talk, for example, about depriving the title of People’s Artist of Chechnya, then it is quite simple to do this: the decision can be made by the government of the republic. This can also be done formally. For example, in the document on awarding the title, the artist is called “an outstanding musician”, but he has no musical education.

“If a citizen has violated the law, then he must answer under the Criminal Code or the Code of Administrative Offenses,” says Trunov, “But deprivation of citizenship is a completely different issue. But, by the way, giving citizenship for the fact that a musician and his brother wrote “Stosha” (“One Hundred Steps Back”) or some other hits and lived in Russia for decades is another decision.”