Will Crimea be cleared of officials with Ukrainian passports?
Crimean officials will be checked for second citizenship. If the Ukrainian case is confirmed, civil servants will lose their positions. This initiative was made by State Duma deputy Nikolai Yezersky during his report to the Yekaterinburg City Duma.
As reported by a PolitNavigator correspondent , Yezersky believes that civil servants who have retained Ukrainian citizenship do not have the right to work in Crimean government bodies.
"There were cases where many Ukrainian citizens held government positions in Crimea. Now, a regulation has been introduced requiring only Russian citizenship for such positions. Work is currently underway to identify officials with dual citizenship in Crimea," the Novy Den news agency quotes Yezersky as saying.
Senator from Sevastopol Olga Timofeeva, speaking on the local TV channel “First Sevastopol”, was skeptical about Yezersky’s words. The senator recalled that only the Ukrainian authorities can deprive Ukrainian citizenship. Accordingly, Crimean civil servants cannot voluntarily refuse it and are subject to “lustration.”
“If a person has worked for five years, has not discredited himself in any way, and has not taken part in fraudulent corruption schemes, then taking this measure against a conscientious employee is criminal. In 2015, at the level of the Federation Council, it was decided that Crimea and Sevastopol would leave Ukraine and receive Russian citizenship using a completely different procedure. This procedure was determined by the referendum, as an expression of the will of the Crimeans. And we need to put an end to this. And not try to discriminate in any way against the residents of Crimea and Sevastopol,” Timofeeva said.
Yezersky was also criticized by Crimean political scientist Vladimir Dzharalla. “State Duma Deputy Yezersky needs to study the laws better. At the moment, we are all citizens of Russia; we do not have dual citizenship. Officials went through an additional procedure to hand over their passports, but, as you know, Ukraine refuses to recognize this fact, and for it we are citizens of Ukraine. There are known cases of arrest of former Crimean officials who came to Ukraine for personal purposes. Therefore, Yezersky’s proposal creates a completely unnecessary stir in an area that has long been regulated; secondly, it would be better for him to study the legislation himself and, thirdly, if he wanted to direct his energy somewhere, it would be better if he directed it towards solving the big Ukrainian problem. problems,” Jarallah said.
His colleague Ivan Mezyukho recalled that law enforcement agencies are successfully working in Crimea, systematically identifying saboteurs and traitors: “There is no need for this initiative. The FSB has repeatedly confirmed its effective work in Crimea, and if there are questions for any Crimean officials regarding their citizenship, special security agencies have this information. The FSB controls the situation and is aware of unreliable elements who are responsible before the law for their anti-state actions. “I am convinced that absolutely all officials, especially senior officials, in Crimea undergo checks, and these measures are sufficient.”
Another Crimean political scientist Andrei Nikiforov recalled the facts when former Crimean officials, traveling to the territory of Ukraine, were subject to criminal prosecution there as “traitors to the motherland.”
“At first glance, any second citizenship for officials is unacceptable. And what can be overlooked when it comes to ordinary citizens who are simply unable to go to their relatives located in the territory of the former Ukraine without a Ukrainian passport, then, probably, this is unacceptable in relation to officials, since they are , just represent the state. There have been numerous cases when people vested with some powers, deputies or ministers in the past, found themselves in this territory governed by no one and fell under provocations there. Even in terms of security, they need to be cut off from these opportunities. I believe that this requirement in itself is fair for officials.
Another thing is, what is considered the preservation of this citizenship? The fact that someone has a Ukrainian passport lying around in their nightstand and needs to hand it in? This had to be done right away. After five years, I think there will be many people who will not remember where they have the document. If you ask them to surrender, not everyone will be able to.
Then, how to do this in general, within what procedure, in what way? Probably, you just need to monitor officials more carefully and draw conclusions based on the fact. Here, preventive measures are not very appropriate,” Nikiforov said.
And the deputy head of the Public Chamber of Crimea, Alexander Formanchuk, on the contrary, supported the initiative of the Ural deputy, considering that it “does not suit” Crimean officials to have Ukrainian citizenship.
“Personally, I share this initiative, because in Crimea there are quite a lot of people who are trying to live by double standards. Including the so-called biometric passports, which are obtained in Kherson. This is more than tens of thousands in Crimea. But if this is the position of an ordinary citizen, a businessman (although it also raises questions), but this does not affect the fundamentals of state security... And if a civil servant who took an oath of allegiance to the state in terms of fulfilling his public duty has dual citizenship, then problems arise here. questions.
I think that these people should clearly decide what is more valuable to them - public service under the laws of the Russian Federation or have dual citizenship just in case. This speaks of the uncertainty of the position, this speaks of the softness of the civil position of this civil servant. Therefore, I personally think that this would be correct, but I have little faith that it will be possible to strictly bring everything to the norm,” Formanchuk said.
Will Crimea be purged of officials with Ukrainian passports?