The State Duma refused to expand the list of grounds for termination of acquired citizenship

The State Duma on Wednesday, after a heated discussion, rejected a bill by Mikhail Matveev (Communist Party of the Russian Federation) to expand the list of crimes, the commission of which entails the termination of acquired Russian citizenship. The initiative found ardent supporters in “A Just Russia – For Truth” (SRZP), but “United Russia” (ER) did not support it, citing the fact that the new citizenship law came into force only on October 26, 2023 and it is necessary to first study the law enforcement practice. At the same time, a day earlier, a similar project was submitted to the Duma, signed by two United Russia members.

Mikhail Matveev proposed adding to the list of acts that are grounds for termination of acquired Russian citizenship (now it mainly includes terrorist, extremist and military crimes) with crimes against life and health, as well as against sexual integrity and sexual freedom of the individual, including minor crimes. The government gave a negative response to this bill, noting that this approach “translates the institution of termination of citizenship into the criminal legal plane,” turning it into “an additional form of responsibility for crimes committed.” In addition, the Cabinet of Ministers recalled that the new law on citizenship came into force only on October 26 and before it is implemented, it is necessary to formulate and study law enforcement practice.

While delivering his report, Mr. Matveev called on his colleagues to take his initiative as carefully as possible, because “our society is waiting for it.” In turn, Artur Taymazov (ER) expressed the position of the specialized committee for CIS affairs, repeating the government’s arguments and adding that the Criminal Code already provides for comprehensive measures for committing such crimes. The communist bill “contradicts the very spirit of the institution of citizenship,” Mr. Taymazov emphasized.

Independent deputy Oksana Dmitrieva asked if there were statistics on crimes committed by people who were granted Russian citizenship. Mikhail Matveev admitted that the Ministry of Internal Affairs responded to his requests for such data that they keep statistics only regarding foreign citizens. “At the same time, we understand perfectly well that both citizens and non-citizens belong to diasporas,” the communist noted. “I conducted an analysis. I looked at the proportion of certain crimes that are committed by representatives of certain nationalities. For example, one of the nationalities of Central Asia is the leader in rape. But it is precisely in crimes against minors – pedophilia – that another nationality is in the lead.” In this regard, Mr. Matveev considers it necessary to return the “nationality” column to departmental statistics – not for discrimination, but for analysis. “But we have stuck our heads in the sand, playing at tolerance, saying that the criminal has no nationality. We have enough of our own criminals!” — the deputy was indignant.

Mikhail Delyagin (SRZP) admitted that the bill is aimed at protecting against ethnic crime, and asked the author if he is not afraid that the very fact of introducing the document “will be regarded as inciting ethnic hatred and, accordingly, as a crime under Article 282 of the Criminal Code” ( inciting hatred or enmity). In response, the communist bravely reminded that, according to Russian law, a deputy cannot be held accountable for his expressed position. “I question the very existence of diasporas as an institution. What’s this? A trade union for the employment of people who come from a certain country? An organized crime group that solves slippery problems with law enforcement agencies finds a bunch of lawyers? Or is it a mutual aid office that buys tickets to quickly fly away? – Mr. Matveev asked rhetorically.

Anatoly Wasserman (SRZP) hinted at the need to amend the article of the Constitution prohibiting deprivation of citizenship by birth (only the Constitutional Assembly has the right to change it, the law on which has not yet been adopted): “This bill is one of the many attempts to reconcile the obvious contradiction between the need to expel our society of people who do not accept it, and the direct prohibition of such expulsion embedded in our Constitution. Until we pass the law on the Constitutional Assembly, we still have a lot of disputes.”

Mikhail Delyagin took the floor again and also attacked the diaspora: “We see migrant terror throughout the country, which is already demonstrative in nature. Don’t we walk the streets? We don’t see a change in the ethnic balance in Moscow? Voters say: state policy is to replace us with migrants. They ask me: who are the masters of Russia? According to the Constitution, the multinational people of Russia. But we see that the masters of Russia are the diasporas!”

Sergei Obukhov (Communist Party of the Russian Federation) called on everyone who is “for victory in a special military operation and for the Russian world” to vote for the bill. This has already outraged Artem Turov (ER), who asked “not to pull the North Military District by the ears”, because in the ranks of the armed forces that are now “fighting neo-fascism in the territory of the former Ukraine” there are representatives of all nationalities. He also recalled that the Duma had been discussing the new version of the citizenship law for a whole year. “The law came into force on October 26 last year, let’s look at law enforcement practice,” the United Russia member conciliatoryly called.

As a result, 108 deputies voted for the bill (with the required minimum of 226 votes), one abstained.

We also note that on January 16, deputies Alexey Zhuravlev (LDPR), Dmitry Kuznetsov (SRZP), Mikhail Sheremet, Alexander Borodai (both United Russia) and the same Mikhail Matveev introduced a bill very similar in meaning to the Duma. It supplements the list of crimes, the commission of which may become grounds for termination of acquired citizenship, with all grave and especially grave articles of the Criminal Code.

Ksenia Veretennikova