EU countries issued more than 94,000 new residence permits to Russians in 2022, writes “Verstka” with reference to Eurostat data.
We are talking about the primary residence permit, which means “any permit with a validity period of at least 3 months”, allowing a foreigner to stay in the EU.
Germany (16 066), Spain (12 611) and Poland (12 277) issued the most residence permits to Russians. Finland (8183) and France (6874) round out the top five. Russian citizens received the least number of residence permits in Romania (248), Luxembourg (391) and Malta (447).
So far, Eurostat has released data on 24 EU countries out of 27. However, despite the fact that Croatia, Lithuania and Cyprus have not yet provided their statistics to the service, the number of primary residence permits issued to Russians has already become a record for the entire 14-year history of observation. In 2021, 82,900 Russian citizens received residence permits in the European Union. Before that, their annual number did not exceed 76,100.
The publication calculated that the average share of Croatia, Cyprus and Lithuania in the issued to Russians of residence permits previously amounted to 5.9% of the rest of the EU. Thus, another 5,500 could potentially be added to the 94,000, and the total number of primary residence permits for Russians in 2022 will reach 99,500.
Earlier, the Russian Foreign Ministry proposed to oblige Russians abroad to notify within 60 days of obtaining citizenship, residence permits or any other documents allowing them to reside in another country.
At the same time, back in 2014, Article 380.2 was added to the Criminal Code, which provides for liability for late notification of obtaining a residence permit or second citizenship. The maximum penalty for this is 400 hours of executive labor. In particular, cases were brought against politician Leonid Gozman and “Mediazona” publisher Pyotr Verzilov under this article.
The draft order of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs is undergoing public discussion, which should end on July 27. If approved, the new order will come into force on October 26 this year.
At the same time, the consular department of the agency promised not to penalize for failure to notify about residence permit abroad. They added that subsequently the Russian will have to address on this issue to the Ministry of Internal Affairs within 60 days from the date of entry into the territory of the Russian Federation. If he fails to do so, liability will follow.
Last year, 550-800 thousand people could leave Russia because of the war with Ukraine, according to demographer Alexei Raksha. Alfa Bank estimates that about 1.1 million people left the country in the first nine months of 2022. The labor force in Russia has decreased by 600 thousand people, reported the Ministry of Economic Development. During mobilization, about 300 thousand able-bodied men were drafted into the army, some of whom were sent to the front.
Earlier, France promised asylum to Russians hiding from mobilization. The country’s National Refugee Court (CNDA) concluded that such citizens should be considered as directly or indirectly incited to commit war crimes in Ukraine.
