The portal of legal information of the Ministry of Internal Affairs posted the draft presidential decree “On some issues related to the peculiarities of the legal status of citizens of the Russian Federation holding the citizenship of Ukraine”, introduced on April 11. It concerns the residents of the occupied territories, who filled out applications to refuse the Ukrainian passport, but still enjoy the rights of a citizen of that state.
The document develops the norms of the law of March 18, 2023, simplifying the renunciation of Ukrainian citizenship. According to it, in order to renounce the passport, it is not necessary to receive confirmation from Kyiv – it is enough to fill in a written form. According to the text of the draft decree, the Ministry of Internal Affairs will have the right to check the citizens who have filled out such a form and draw up a corresponding conclusion. It will be sent to the citizen himself and to the FSB.
Electronic databases and information received from state bodies and organizations will be analyzed, up to the base of receiving social benefits by the citizens or realization of other Ukrainian rights, for example, inheritance. As the “Vedomosti” experts noted, from the standpoint of international law, Ukrainians are not deprived of their former rights after unilaterally renouncing their citizenship, and Kyiv considers them as its citizens. A check by the Interior Ministry can await anyone; officers will pay attention not only to those Ukrainians who renounced their Ukrainian citizenship under the law of March 18, but also to those who did not do so.
As noted by Vyacheslav Postavnin, head of the Center for Analytical and Practical Studies of Migration Processes and former head of the Russian Federal Migration Service, in the “annexed territories” remain people who maintain ties with Ukraine, such as receiving pensions and social benefits. The expert said: “This is a thorny question, whether it is the method of inspections by the Ministry of Internal Affairs to identify people who have a negative attitude towards Russia and what to do with them then, so that they give up their rights.”
