Putin urges progress on Russian citizenship law

PanARMENIAN.Net - Russian President Vladimir Putin has ordered the government to speed up progress on a draft law easing citizenship requirements for Russian-language speaking applicants who are descendants of people born in Russia and the Soviet Union, RIA Novosti reported citing the Kremlin press service.

Putin has tasked the government with introducing a draft law to the State Duma, Russia’s lower house of parliament, by September 15, 2013, the Kremlin said Tuesday, April 30.

Russian citizenship requirements will be relaxed for those applicants who have decided to move to Russia for permanent residence and renounce the citizenship of another country.

During his live question and answer session on TV last week, Putin invited citizens from the CIS countries “of a reproductive age, who are well-educated and can adapt well to our culture” to become Russian citizens. “We are waiting for such people,” he said.

Russia wants to attract such immigrants because of the falling population, which threatens to create a demographic crisis, with a particular shortage of working age people. Many people from the former USSR who have tried to get Russian citizenship hitherto complain about the time the process takes, and the arbitrary nature of the bureaucracy involved.